"I decided to give up government service as I had sensed the high potential that vegetable production had. The demand for vegetable was great and so is it even today," said Neupane who is now considered pioneer in vegetable farming in Jumla. "I am getting reward of my hard work, I'm satisfied," he said.
Last year, Neupane made profit of Rs 1.8 million by selling vegetables. This year he has sold vegetables worth Rs 3.2 million. His wife Radha informed that apart from the district itself, the vegetables are supplied even to Surkhet, Nepaljung and other parts of Karnali zone. "Cauliflower, radish, cucumber and pumpkin among other produces of their produces are in high demand," she said.
While Neupane's is the biggest vegetable farm in the district, 200 others have followed his footsteps and are doing big or small scale vegetable farming. "Many people are employed in my own farm. Similarly, around 200 people are doing vegetable farming across the district," said Neupane who had learnt technical skills for the farming in 1995.
Neupane said that the result was not much encouraging in the beginning. It was hard to have patience. However, things gradually improved as he worked consistently. "Other grains such as rice or wheat could not be produced in high quantity. So, vegetable farming was a better option for the farmers to opt for," he said. Neupane has named his company after his wife's name. The biggest vegetable farm in the district is known as 'Radha vegetable and seed production company'. The company is famous for both seasonal and off season fresh vegetables.
Neupane has employed 10 regular and 40 seasonal staffs to work on his vegetable farms that stretch across three hectors of land in front of his house.
Two hectors of land has been taken on lease while he owns the other one hector. "Jumla is already famous for organic farming. Growing number of people are taking interest in it. Our vegetables are taken to the capital, Biratnagar and elsewhere," Neupane informed proudly.
Meanwhile, Bishnu Mahat, chief of District Agriculture Development Office stated that Jumla was known for apple until sometime ago. Now, it's better known for vegetables. "Vegetables from Jumla are in high demand due to comparatively low use of pesticides," Mahat said. "As there's good money in it, locals are quite attracted to the farming."
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Neupane claims that vegetable worth Rs 10 million are exported from his village, Talichaur alone. "Perhaps the village sells vegetables worth more than that," he said.
Fixing of grading machine
Establishing seed grading machine has still remained a challenge for farmers in other corners of the country. However, Neupane has already acquired one. "It was not easy to get it here. But we did it last year. The machine is very useful," he said.
It cost him Rs 300,000 to get it from India to Kathmandu and then to Jumla. Recently he did grading of the carrot seed. "When the grading is done, rotten or too small or useless seeds are refined easily. We can easily separate and grade seed types on the basis of our choice," he informed adding that grading of 18 types of vegetable seeds is being done generally at his farm. He further said that the machine works even in low power supply and thus he faces no hassle in operating it. "There's no voltage problem as the machine does not consume much power."
Neupane says his passion for farming and the consistent hard work has given him everything. While he has received several awards for his contribution in the agricultural field so far, last year he also bagged the prestigious 'Rastrapati Puraskar' by the District Agricultural Office.
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