Foreign-employment returnee in Bhojpur turns to commercial chilli farming

BHOJPUR: Young people returning from foreign employment in Bhojpur district are increasingly taking up commercial agriculture, local farmers say. 

Kumar Bista of Bokhim in Bhojpur Municipality-5 spent eight years working overseas before registering 'Unnati Krishi Tatha Pashupalan Farm' and launching organic Akbare chilli production.

Bista said that, rather than toiling abroad, one can earn a comparable income as a professional farmer at home. “I spent eight years overseas for foreign employment, and now I have returned and am engaged in commercial agriculture here. I am earning an income equivalent to what I made abroad while living with my family,” he said.

He has planted 1,400 chilli plants and aims to earn between Rs 200,000 and Rs 300,000 from this year’s crop if market prices remain favourable. The Akbare chillies sell in the local market for Rs 200 to Rs 300 per kilogramme and are also dispatched to Dharan, Biratnagar and Kathmandu.

Bista said that crop diseases such as leaf curling, pest infestation and root rot have begun to appear. Combining chilli cultivation with animal husbandry, he uses only dung fertiliser and organic methods, “keeping human health in mind,” he said. He is also commercially cultivating oranges on about eight ropanis of land.

He urged the government to offer technical support, training and grants to farmers based on their business plans, saying this would help more young people succeed in commercial agriculture.

By RSS