A group of people 16 took the barren land of Shanti Namuna Higher Secondary School, Manigram on lease for 30 years and started growing saplings of vegetables, fruits and flowers.[break]
The nursery that was established in 2003 provides saplings of various fruits like mango, litchi, pineapple, pomegranate and banana and various types of vegetables and medicinal herbs.
“The demand for the saplings that are ready for plantation is very high,” said Tolakanta Basyal, manager of the nursery. The group who started the nursery has also startes rearing goats along with poultry and fish farming.
“We had transaction of around 4 million last year,” he added. There has been an investment of Rs 10 million in the nursery so far. Last year it sold saplings worth Rs 2 million. There are around 20 staffs in the nursery.
However, the nursery has not been able to use all the land. “We are planning to use all the land we took on lease and make money out of it,” said Basyal.
The nursery spent around Rs 1.3 million for underground water. “As we have enough water now, we are planning to start fish farming and plant vegetables in the unused land. There is high demand of vegetables in the market,” said Basyal.
As cow dung is required for vegetable farming, the nursery is planning to rear cows as well. “We can have extra income by rearing the cow as we can sell milk and use dung in our own land,” said Basyal. The nursery is planning to rear 20 cows at present.
The nursery pays very nominal amount as rent to the school. “Though we get very nominal amount as rent by providing the land on lease, the land has been used for a good reason and we are happy about it,” said Kul Prasad Lamichhane, assistant principal of the school.
“Earlier we had problem protecting the land but now the land has been preserved,” said Lamichhane.
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