By Our Correspondent

Rajbiraj, Mar. 18: A cooperative established 10 years ago with the money earned from selling paddy now transacts more than Rs. 210 million.

The cooperative was established to select paddy seeds in Kamalpur of Surunga Municipality-2 in Saptari district. Out of the paddy produced in the field, good paddy is sown for the next year. Every farmer knows the normal process of producing paddy from the same seed.

The farmers of Kamalpur, who used to spend their leisure time in open space of the village, started keeping a small amount of paddy at home. As the number of farmers increased, each of 80 farmers has started keeping 25 kg seeds at their homes. Later, 50 kg of paddy was kept.

According to Ram Bilash Chaudhary Tharu, coordinator of the credit sub-committee of the local cooperative, the agreement was reached after a long discussion on what to do with the paddy collected by the Tharu-majority farmers. He informed that Rs. 46,000 was collected by selling the paddy collected by the farmers in 2011/12.

According to Shyam Narayan Chaudhary, manager of Kamalpur Community Savings and Credit Cooperative Limited, it came into operation on March 27, 2011 by maintaining the share capital of Rs. 46,000 collected from the sale of paddy seeds.Stating that the farmer's cash is paddy, he said, "It is rare to find a cooperative born in the mind of a farmer who is dependent on paddy."

Sabita Chaudhary, an employee of the cooperative, said that the cooperative currently has 286 members. She informed that the total share capital of the organisation has reached Rs. 2.848 million. Bhawani Prasad Chaudhary, chairman of the cooperative, said that the cooperative had collected Rs. 10.9 million in deposits till last month. Similarly, the cooperative provided loan of Rs. 17.8 million.

The cooperative has a paid up capital of Rs. 8.738 million, he said.The cooperative is investing in agriculture, animal husbandry (cow and buffalo), vegetable farming, fish farming, goat farming, poultry farming, household and education to make the farmers of the village self-reliant in agriculture.

One hundred farmers have been offered credit for vegetable farming, 50 for education, three for poultry and four for fish farming. Apart from this, Rs. 5 million received from the Youth Self-Employment Fund has been invested in 28 youths and Rs. 2.5 million received from the Gramin Swalamban Fund has been loaned to 36 people.The cooperative, which operates in its own building, has become a means for the local farmers to solve their financial problem.