Galyang Municipality Provides Rs. 5,000 Incentive to Farmers Raising Draft Oxen

Syangja. Galyang Municipality in Syangja has provided Rs. 5,000 as an incentive to farmers raising draft oxen. The amount has been provided to 115 farmers to attract them towards raising draft oxen as the practice has been declining with the increasing use of technology.

Chief Administrative Officer of Galyang Municipality, Yubaraj Adhikari, stated that the incentive amount of Rs. 5,000 per farmer has been provided based on applications received from 115 farmers for 116 pairs of draft oxen.

The incentive is being provided to attract farmers towards raising draft oxen due to the increasing use of mechanical tillers (power tillers), leading to a shortage of skilled manpower to operate them, unavailability of fuel in rural areas, and difficulties in repairing mechanical tillers when they break down.

The farmer incentive program has been operated with the objective of encouraging farmers who raise draft oxen for the current fiscal year 2082-083. The municipality had issued a notice seeking applications from farmers raising draft oxen to provide them with incentive amounts. Based on the notice, 116 farmers raising draft oxen from all 11 wards of the municipality applied, and the incentive amount has been provided, informed Mahadev Ban, technician at the Livestock Service Branch of the municipality.

"We requested applications from farmers for the incentive amount related to draft oxen from the municipality," he said, "Based on the notice, after the farmers submitted applications with ox insurance and photos of the draft oxen in their sheds, the amount was paid into the farmers' accounts after monitoring by the municipality."

He claimed that the number of draft oxen within the municipality might be higher than the number of applications received, and some farmers might not have applied even after being aware of the program. The program to provide incentive grants to farmers raising draft oxen will be continued for the upcoming fiscal year 2083-084. Farmers raising draft oxen who did not receive the incentive grant in the current fiscal year will receive the grant in the upcoming fiscal year.