Indira Maya Ghimire of Mirge VDC, too, is in the cardamom business now. She has planted one kilogram of cardamom seeds on her nursery spread over three ropanies of land. She has almost 100,000 cardamom saplings at her nursery now and she believes that around 500,000 cardamom saplings will be ready by the end of next year. "If my cardamom saplings grow as expected, I will earn at least Rs 3,000,00," says Ghimire.A majority of farmers in Dolakha district are now into cardamom farming. Commercial farming of cardamom has grown exponentially in different VDCs of the district with farmers reaping huge benefit from the crop. Many farmers, who had been growing maize, wheat, potato and other crops earlier, have now turned to cardamom after seeing the profit.
Farmers said that commercial farming of cardamom started in the district around 2010, leading to a huge improvement in the living standards of the people engaged in the business.
Krishna Hari Karki of Jhule, whose two sons are studying abroad, said, "A majority of families in this VDC are into cardamom farming, following in the footstep of other families that made large profit by growing cardamom." Karki said that he is happy that he does not have to depend on his sons for financial support after starting cardamom farming. "Instead, I have been sending them money time and again," Karki added.
Indira Maya Ghimire of Mirge said that farmers are increasingly attracted to cardamom farming because it requires relatively low investment and yields better profit. "Obviously, farmers are drawn to crops that give better return," Ghimire said. "I had planted one kilogram of cardamom seeds and the saplings have come out well. If saplings grow as expected, I can earn up to Rs 3,000,000 in the next one year."
Farmers like Ghimire and Karki say that the demand for cardamom saplings has been growing rapidly in the entire district because of which most farmers are increasingly planting cardamom seeds. According to them, it takes around 30 months for a planted cardamom seed to grow into a mature cardamom sapling. They said that a cardamom sapling fetches them Rs 8 per piece. "We don't even have to go looking for buyers as they reach out to the farmers to purchase the saplings," added Ghimire.
Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), a non-governmental organization, has been supporting Dolakha-based farmers for the commercialization of cardamom farming. According to farmers, commercial farming of cardamom started in the district after RNN imparted technical knowledge about cardamom farming and its economic benefit to the farmers. RRN had supported farmers by providing cardamom seeds free of cost in the initial phase and it has been supporting farmers to commercialize cardamom farming in the district.
Interestingly, some educational institutions in the district have also been promoting commercial cardamom farming. Ambar Higher Secondary School of Jhule VDC has planted cardamom saplings on 65 ropanies of land by purchasing saplings from RRN and local farmers. Informing that the school sold 2,200 kg of cardamom last year, Suresh Prasad Yadav, principal of the school, said "We have been investing the profit made by selling cardamom to develop infrastructure of the school."
With growing commercialization of cardamom farming in the district, farmers have marked July 15 as 'Cardamom Day' and have been celebrating the day since the last four years.
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