By Belina Thapa, Lamjung, Aug. 25: Buckwheat farming has flourished in the upper parts of Manang.

The locals have planted buckwheat in their fields and gardens which not only provides food but also attracts tourists, said Kanchha Ghale, chairman of Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality. “The locals here prepare various dishes for themselves and for tourists,” he said, informing that buckwheat was grown completely organically in the mountainous district.

The farmers here plant buckwheat in June and harvest it in September. But August is the time when the buckwheat blooms, turning the fields purple.

“It is such a beautiful site that used to attract hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists. But this year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and damage to the roads caused by floods and landslides, no one came,” Ghale said with a sad look.

Many of the farmers cultivate the crop for subsistence with only a few farming it commercially to sell in the market, said Pramod Gaire, acting head of the Agriculture Knowledge Centre of Manang. He shared that buckwheat was a good food crop for Manang where other food crops like paddy, maize and millet do not grow.

Gaire said that many farmers in Ngisyang, Chame, Nason and Narpa Bhumi grew buckwheat but he did not have any concrete statistics. “The local levels have not been able to collect data due to a lack of manpower,” he said.

According to the farmers, buckwheat can be grown every other year without the use of much fertilizer.