Farmers Find Joy After Monkey Troubles

In Hetaunda, Makwanpur, farmers are very happy because they are getting a good price for their ginger. They are selling ginger, including the plant with its roots, for eighty rupees per kilogram. This ginger is in high demand for the Chhath festival. The farmers are especially pleased because they had started growing ginger on land that had been left unused for years due to problems with monkeys destroying their crops.

A Festival Brings Good Prices

There is a tradition of offering the whole ginger plant during the Chhath festival. Because of this, traders from cities like Hetaunda, Birgunj, and Kalaiya are coming directly to the farmers' fields to buy the ginger. One farmer, Yuvaraj Timalsina, explained that while ginger normally sells for fifty to sixty rupees per kilogram, the current festival price is eighty rupees per kilogram. He shared that he and other farmers have already sold hundreds of kilograms of ginger with its plant, allowing them to make a good profit.

From Problem to Solution

For a long time, farmers in this area of Hetaunda were troubled by monkeys. The monkeys would destroy traditional crops like rice, corn, and millet. This forced farmers to look for alternative crops that the monkeys would not damage. They chose to grow ginger and turmeric. A farmer named Anju Dhakal said that for ten years, her field was left barren because of the monkeys. Now, with ginger and turmeric, she has a good income. These new crops not only provide financial relief but also act as a safe shield against the monkeys. She added that farmers are more enthusiastic because traders come to the fields, they receive cash payments directly, and there is less risk of crop loss.

Government Support Through Cooperatives

To encourage the farmers, the Bagmati Provincial government provided ginger seeds through a local agricultural cooperative in Hetaunda called Naulo Bihani. According to the cooperative's president, Vishnu Dhungana, they distributed nearly five thousand kilograms of ginger seeds to seventy-six farmers based on demand. They also provided five hundred kilograms of turmeric seeds to twenty-nine farmers. For this program, fifty percent of the investment was covered by the provincial government, and the remaining fifty percent was covered by the cooperative.