Farmers at Sirseni of Gulmi have switched to coffee farming from traditional maize and millet cultivation.
Despite an increase in income, the transfer to the lucrative cash crop has relieved them of monkey menace and crop destruction by other wild animals.
The Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project Implementation Unit facilitated the change by providing farmers with essential resources including techniques for commercial production, nursery plants, fertilisers, and other materials needed for coffee cultivation.
Thirty households in Sirseni came together to form the Tindhare Coffee Production Farmers' Group four years ago. Each household now has between 50 and 2,000 coffee trees.
Meghlal Aryal, a member of the group, said the trees planted four years ago have begun to bear fruit.
Aryal grows the highest number of coffee plants–over 2,000–in his garden. Some plants have already started producing coffee pods, he said.
“The fields where we used to grow maize and millet are now covered by coffee plants,” said Aryal, who has planted coffee on his 10 ropani of land.
Farmers in the area say they have been more hopeful towards coffee farming than traditional agriculture.
Ganga Kumari Pokhrel, Chief of the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project, said that they have provided farmers coffee saplings, fertilisers, equipment for irrigation, shading materials, and nets and wires among others things for expanding commercial coffee cultivation.
Farmers are given technical know-how on coffee farming and processing through the Coffee School from time to time, Pokharel said.
The coffee plants, however, are sometimes damaged by pests and pathogens, which have worried the farmers.
The commercial coffee farms span over an area of around 241 hectares in Gulmi district, the pioneer of coffee cultivation in Nepal.
The local governments as well as various offices like the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project, the Coffee Development Centre Aanpchaur, and Coffee Research Centre Bhandari Danda have been working to expand commercial coffee farming in the district.
RSS
