By Our Correspondent
Ratanchura, Nov. 13: Sweet orange (junar) farmer Nirmal Ramtel of Golanjor Rural Municipality-5, Ratanchura of Sindhuli, who was worried after the hailstorm in June destroyed budding sweet orange, is now happy.
He was worried that his income would be nil when two hailstorms in the month of June had damaged just growing sweet oranges.
“The oranges that survived the hailstorm have now grown. The hailstorm has proved a boon for sweet oranges,” farmer Ramtel said. "This year, the production of sweet orange has become so good that it is impossible to describe. The plants are full of fruits.”

Beg Bahadur Alemgar, a farmer of Golanjor Rural Municipality-4, Tinkanya expressed his confidence that the production of orange would increase significantly this year.
He said that the nature had favoured the sweet orange farmers this year. Alemgar said that he earned around Rs. 1.6 million from the sale of sweet orange last year.
Another farmer Jit Bahadur Thakuri, who has been cultivating sweet oranges since 2038 BS, has been cultivating sweet oranges on nine ropanis of land. He said that there are now 250 sweet orange plants in the garden.

Thakuri said, "The hailstorm had not damaged sweet oranges as we thought. Sweet orange surviving the hilstorm has turned into a good yield now.”
Farmers in the district said that the sweet orange season starts from the first week of Mangsir and ends in Falghun.
Farmers are excited after the increase in sweet orange production this year. Farmers involved in sweet orange farming said that the weather had helped them after the hailstorm.
"Sweet orange farming is becoming a means of livelihood for many farmers of the district," said Thakuri.

He said that there was no problem for farmers in selling orange as most of the orchards have access to transport and traders reach the orchards to purchase the fruit.
Devraj Adhikari, chief of the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernisation Project, Sweet Orange Super Zone, estimated that sweet orange production would increase by 15 to 20 per cent.
He said that there was a sign of improvement in sweet orange production as the outbreak of Chinese Citrus Fly was declining in the orchards thanks to regional pest control campaign.

Seeet orange has been cultivated in 1,345 hectares of land in the district this year. Last year, 8,881 tonnes of sweet orange was produced.
According to the Sweet Orange Central Cooperative Union, the farmers earned around Rs. 700 million from the sale of sweet orange in Sindhuli last year.