The village youths have been earning their livelihood through vegetable farming and are quite satisfied with the income it fetches. "Our annual income from vegetables farming ranges from Rs. 800,000 to one million rupees," said Birendra Mehata, 29, a local youth vegetable farmer.
"Even after paying Rs. 150,000 for foreign employment, there is no assurance that you'll land good jobs there. As we earn pretty good amount working at our own home, foreign employment does not attracts us," he said while adding that he has been farming vegetables in his three bighas land since a decade now.
But he was not always into vegetable farming. Right after passing SLC examinations Birendra had a strong desire for foreign employment. But as financial condition of his family was weak back then, he could not afford to pay for foreign employment processing fee. This left him with the only option to work in the farm along with his father. And now he is happy that he didn't have cash to pay for employment fees.
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"If we work hard enough, we can earn good amount of money even inside our country," he said, adding, "Going abroad is not necessary at all." He claims that his income is better than what his friends are earning in Gulf countries.
Similar is the experience of Dev Kumar Mehata, 35, another local youth, who have chosen farming instead of foreign employment. "There was no source of income for my family despite having plentiful land. Poor financial condition had prevented me from going abroad," said Dev Kumar sharing his experience. He has been involved in vegetable farming about two decades ago.
Once considered as a poor family in the village, now it is considered among wealthiest. He now has a brick and mortar house and his two children study at a private boarding school hostel at the district headquarters. "All the prosperity came from vegetables farming," he shared.
This village, with around 200 families is three kilometers North South from the district headquarters. Learning from instances of youths like that of Dev Kumar and Birendra, more than 100 village youths have embraced vegetable farming as their sole occupation, informed Narayan Mahato, a leading farmer of the village. "Vegetable farming is currently the largest source of income for the village youths," he said.
Apart from Rajbiraj, the vegetables grown in Katti village are traded as far as Kathmandu and Pokhara, Rameshwar Mandal, another vegetable farmer of the village said while elaborating on the market for the vegetable produced by the village.
Vegetables including cauliflowers, tomato, chilly, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, pumpkin, eggplant, sponge gourd, among others are grown in the village. The villagers also grow paddy, wheat, among others crops for commercial purpose.
"Lack of proper irrigation system has made farming more expensive. Apart from that, saplings and fertilizers are not easily available, which is making farming more difficult," Rameshwar said elaborating on the problems faced by the farmers. Locals complained that most of their problems would have been solved if the district agriculture development office would have been more helpful.
While the number of youths vying for foreign employment is increasing everyday in overwhelming number, the youths of the small village of Saptari are examples that good incomes can be earned from the villages itself, if resources are accessed and utilized through modern techniques.
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