JUMLA, May 11: It has not been very long since Samjhana Devkota of Talichaur village started vegetable farming. Just like other village folks, she was accustomed to growing only crops in her field before.

Unless Nepali farmers become entrepreneurs, commercial agriculture will not be sustainable in Nepal

KHOTANG, April 23: Ramnidhi Acharya, a farmer of Yamkha in Diprung Chuichumma Rural Municipality, is making handsome money by producing saplings of different fruits and spices in his nursery. Staying within the country, he has set an example for other locals who keep saying that there is no opportunity in village.

BANEPA, April 15: Taking advantage of lack of proper market inspection, traders in Kavre are charging arbitrary prices for hybrid maize seeds.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, April 12: India’s money-losing sugar mills have run up a record $4.38 billion in arrears to 50 million cane farmers, who have gone unpaid for their produce for more than a year, industry and government sources said on Thursday.

KATHMANDU, April 8: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli expressed dissatisfaction about how local middlemen escalated sugar prices after the government announced a ban on sugar import to promote local industries and farmers.

BANEPA, April 8: Nawaraj Sapkota, a local farmer of Panauti municipality-3, Telmale, Kushadevi was forced to quit his occupation after growing wild rampage lately.

TAPLEJUNG, April 7: The falling price of black cardamom has been frustrating for farmers and traders in the eastern part of the country. Though a brief price rise after a continuous fall for the past four months came as a respite for them, the recovery did not last more than a couple days.

JUMLA, March 16: The “Ek Ghar, Ek Syau Bagaicha” (One House, One Apple Garden) campaign that began in Jumla with an aim of making farmers self-sustained through apple farming has proved to be beneficial for the farmers.

SARLAHI, March 6: Sugarcane farmers in the district are agitated as the government has failed to provide them the promised subsidy, and their due amounts from the sugar mills have piled up for the past two years.

JUMLA, March 4: Farmers in Jumla are expecting better harvest of apple because of recent snowfall in the district.

PYUTHAN, Feb 28: Farmer Duj Bahadur Rawat, 47, used to work very hard even in the past. However, the local of Sarumarani Rural Municipality - 1 would hardly make a decent living.

KATHMANDU, Feb 23: Twenty Nepali farmers and agricultural experts are currently receiving a month-long training on organic farming in India. As a part of Nepal-India New Partnership in Agriculture, the second group of 20 Nepalis is receiving the training at National Center of Organic Farming (NCOF) in Ghaziabad, India, from February 1 to March 2.

KATHMANDU, Feb 223: The Indian Embassy said on Friday that the second group of 20 Nepali farmers and agriculture experts is undergoing training on organic farming in India as part of the partnership in agriculture between India and Nepal.

KATHMANDU, Feb 22: As part of India-Nepal new partnership in agriculture, the second group of 20 Nepali farmers and agriculture experts are currently undergoing a month long training at the National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF) Ghaziabad in India from February 1 to March 2.

TIKAPUR, Feb 19: Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) has expressed interest to make big investment in banana farming.

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Sugarcane farmers from three districts – Sarlahi, Rautahat, and Mahottari – have gathered in Hariaun of Sarlahi to protest against the authorities for failing to provide them the subsidy amount that the government had decided to give them on the sale of sugarcane.

Three sugar mills of Nawalpur and Parasi districts have started crushing sugarcane. However, farmers have not got payment for their canes.

MAHOTTARI, Feb 1: The workers at Everest Sugar and Chemical Industries Limited in Ramnagar, Mahottari have continued their hunger strike today to press the industry administration to address their demand.

CHITWAN, Jan 29: Dealers of vegetables and fruits in Khairhani of eastern Chitwan on Monday collected cabbages from farmers at just Rs 3 to Rs 5 per kg. But when the same cabbages reach Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market in Kathmandu, their wholesale and retail prices become Rs 12 and Rs 25 per kg respectively.

KATHMANDU, Jan 27: Besides having to press the government every year to set sugarcane price and open sugar mills, farmers often face hurdles in receiving payment of their dues from the mills, according to the Sugarcane Producer Farmers’ Association.

MUSTANG, Jan 10: Continuous snowfall since the last few days in Mustang has hard-hit people’s life. Even cattle have been bearing the brunt. However, farmers say that they are happy as snowfall is expected to bring back the moisture of the soil triggering better yield for their crops.

CAMBODIA, Jan 2: Bopha should be in school but instead toils seven days a week in a searing brick kiln on the outskirts of Phnom Penh -- a 14-year-old trapped in debt bondage in a boom industry preying on the poverty of Cambodia's farmers.

KAILALI, Dec 22: Farmers in far-western Nepal are worried that their winter crops will be affected due to a shortage of fertilizers.

KATHMANDU, Dec 17: Last month, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Chakrapani Khanal reportedly received a report from the National Farmer’s Commission in which the commission had sought Rs 9 billion from the government to pay the farmers in damages for crops failure caused by various natural calamities.

KATHMANDU, Dec 8: As many as 2,000 farmers, or five times more than the available, have applied for grants to run model farm in Gandaki Province. The application call was announced by the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture, and Cooperatives for receiving grants and building farmhouse. The grants are toward the entire operation costs of the initial year.

NEPALGUNJ, Dec 8: Farmers in Nepalgunj are delighted this year as well, with the Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) continuing to purchase paddy from them at an inflated price. Each year, the corporation gives them a price better than the local market to relieve the farmers of financial burden.

KATHMANDU, Dec 3: Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Chakra Pani Khanal has expressed dissatisfaction over functioning of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), stating that farmers are not benefiting from research carried out by the government agency.

NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Over a 100,000 farmers across India are marching towards the capital city of Delhi Thursday and Friday to demand debt waivers and a solution to the agrarian crisis. They are organized by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) with the support of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC, All India Farmers’ Resistance Coordination Committee), which is comprised of around 200 organizations.

SARLAHI, Nov 25: As sugar mills are demanding a revision in sugarcane price to resume operation, farmers are compelled to sell sugarcane to local molasses crushers at very low prices.

Being an agricultural country, Nepal has not been able to profit from its available agricultural resources. There are numerous reasons behind the failure and one of them is a lack of proper business ideas. Considering the shortage in connection between the demand in city and farmers, Shashank Shree Neupane established an online platform named Rising Farm, in July 2017. Rising Farm is a collaborative platform for the investors and farmers through which micro investor chooses and farmer to grow goats and pay them accordingly. With this platform, anyone can be a farmer in just a click.

BHAKTAPUR, Nov 18: Bhaktapur is known as the district of farmers. However, every year this district faces a shortage of chemical fertilizers, mostly during the plantation period. As a result of the shortage, farmers of the district have been facing difficulties in wheat plantation.

SURKHET, Nov 11: Opium production is not legal in the country. However, until a few years ago Kaltadi village of Surkhet was known for only one thing - opium production. Almost all of the 32 households of this tiny village would farm nothing but opium.

The week in pictures for October 28- November 3.

KATHMANDU, Nov 1: Police in Kathmandu arrested sugar producer Rakesh Agarwal on Wednesday on the charge of not paying dues totaling Rs 473 million to sugarcane farmers.

KATHMANDU, Oct 29: Sugar mills have started releasing pending payments to sugarcane farmers after the Department of Industry (DoI) stopped providing government services like issuing letter of recommendations to the mills.

RAUTAHAT, Oct 13: Shree Ram Sugar Mills Limited of Garuda, Rautahat has started meetings with cane farmers to buy time to pay the latter’s dues, following a directive by the government earlier this week to clear all dues within five days.

KATHMANDU, Oct 11: The House of Representative committee on industry, labour and consumers' welfare has directed the government to immediately fix the price of sugar.

KATHMANDU, Sept 17: National Farmers' Commission (NFC) spent Rs 81.7 million of the allocated Rs 94.5 million in Fiscal Year 2017/18.

CHITWAN, Sept 9: Sita Sunar, a peasant from Sharadanagar village, had to queue up for four hours to buy 10 kg of fertilizer. She lamented that she had been struggling to get some fertilizer for two months.

CAPE TOWN, Aug 1: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the ruling African National Congress must initiate a parliamentary process to enshrine in the constitution a proposed amendment, paving way for land grabs without compensation.

The pumpkin is diced, the chicken carved and the eggs beaten into an omelette, but the people preparing the food are not chefs -- they are scientists testing produce from Japan's Fukushima region.

PANCHTHAR, July 30: Farmers in Province 1 have become weary because of the slowdown in sales of their cash crops including cardamom, ginger, and seasonal vegetables.

BHADRAPUR, July 25: Hundreds of local farmers in Jhapa district involved in black pepper plantation are concerned as their produces go unsold due to the dominance of imported black pepper in the local markets.

PARIS, July 25: The Tour de France, one of the cycling's three Grand Tours came to a halt during Stage 16 when a group of cyclists in the race were sprayed during a protest by French farmers. Local farmers brought the Stage 16 of the race to a halt Tuesday after bales of hay were thrown on to the road on the route from Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon prompting the police to fire tear gas resulting in obstructing the riders' vision.

WASHINGTON DC, July 25: The Trump administration has extended $12 billion in emergency financial assistance to farmers negatively affected by the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, among others, Politico reported Tuesday.

DAMAK, July 22: Farmers of Jhapa are worried as their paddy saplings are drying up due to scorching heat and lack of rainfall.

KATHMANDU, July 22: Paddy transplantation has been completed on over 72 percent of the rice fields in the country so far.

DANG, July 22: Farmers here have worshiped the Bhumebarma god after the area has failed to receive rain even as the time is nearing towards the end of monsoon.

KATHMANDU, July 14: Although tea has been considered as a competitive product of the country, most of the tea farmers are apparently uninterested in expanding their business.