By Our Correspondent
Okhaldhunga, Nov.7: Tejendra Bista of Raniban in Champadevi Gaunpalika of Okhaldhunga district has become an exemplary farmer in the village.
With the adoption of modern agriculture techniques and commercial farming and poultry business, he became an example of the settlements on the banks of the Likhu River.
Bista's family has been busy in poultry and vegetable farming for the last six years.
While studying in Kathmandu in 2015, he got a chance to visit some farms in western Nepal which encouraged him to take up the commercial farming.
Bista has registered Laharmi Agricultural Farm in 2016 and has provided employment to seven members of two families.
Stating that his father’s orange farming when he was a child inspired him, Bista said that he became a commercial farmer especially because of the Indian blockade of 2015/16 which created a shortage of vegetables and other daily essentials. “At that time, I felt that we should be self-reliant at least in cereals and vegetables,” he said.
His father Tap Dhwaj Bista, 75, said that many years ago he had planted 50-60 orange trees in an effort to initiate commercial farming in the locality.
He expressed his happiness in his child becoming a commercial farmer and making good profits from the business.
He said that people could earn income by staying in the village with their family and suggested those who go abroad to stay back and take up innovative farming techniques.
Bista’s farm also features tortoises and peacocks.
"You cannot earn immediate income from the investment made in agriculture, you have to wait for a few years. We have invested about Rs. 7 million and till now not received any government grant,” he said.
He said that real farmers could not be identified even today and they were deprived of the facilities provided by the government.
Lately, dozen youths have been involved in agribusiness in the western part of the district.