“The business was only in name as we always had to struggle even for two square meals a day,” recalled Sijali, who has five children to look after. He said he was growing frustrated with the slow pace of business and thinking of shutting down the six years old dairy shop altogether.
But the BP Highway that connects Dhulikhel on the Araniko Highway and Bardibas on the East-West Highway, was to change his family’s fortune forever.
The 160-km long highway, which is also known as Sindhuli Road, was constructed by the Japanese government at a cost of Rs 1.1 billion in about 20 years. The construction had started in August 1995 and the Japanese government handed over the highway to the Nepalese government on March 1, 2015.
As a section of the highway connected the remote village in the hilly district with Dhulikhel and public vehicles started to ply from his house to the place, Sijali found a bigger market for his business of milk and milk products. He started carrying milk from his house to Banepa to sell to other dairy shops. “The road changed everything. Money started pouring in, though we indeed had to make good efforts for that,” grinned Sijali.
One of the strong evidence of his newly earned prosperity is that his five children, who previously attended public school nearby his house, now study at a private boarding school in Banepa.
He is not the only one to grow from a small dairy farmer to be a real entrepreneur.
The highway has encouraged many farmers in the district, who relied only on farming to eke out a living, to venture into other types of businesses.
Farming of Junar, a sweet indigenous orange farming done in the Ramechhap and Sindhuli districts, was rapidly shrinking until a decade ago in districts known for junar farming in the country.
The earning was meager as junar farmers could not take the product to the market. A huge share of money earned from junar would go into the pocket of middlemen. “But with the construction of highway, farmers are once again turning to junar farming,” said Tilak Bahadur Thapa, president of Sindhuli District Junar Development Association (DJDA), formed by the locals to promote Junar farming in the district.
Sher Bahadur Tamang, a farmer, said he barely made more than 35,000 rupees during the fruit season until a decade ago. “The construction of the highway is changing things for better. We farmers make from 300,000 on an average in a season now. The highway is helping to build a price-value for our products,” said he. He has 300 junar trees.
Farmers sold a kilogram of junar at just Rs 2 a few years ago. But now, the citrus fruit now fetches between Rs 35 to 40.
DJDA, in collaboration with District Agriculture Office and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has also established a cooling center in Dumja VDC in Sindhuli to store junar to sell even during off-season.
JICA has been providing technical support to local farmers to help market their farm products.
Likewise, mobility of people along the highway, hotels and shops is growing. With the opening of the highway, vegetable farmers are taking their products to a wider market through agricultural cooperatives.
“The highway is connecting farmers with market. Most importantly, the highway is reviving confidence among people in farming,” said Tamang.
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