Quitting lucrative foreign jobs, youths in Pokhara opt for vegetable farming

Expecting bright future within the country, some youths here have opted for vegetable farming by quitting the overseas jobs done for almost a decade in UAE.

Dipendra Bastola, Dhruba Koirala and Dilliram Adhikari of Pokhara Metropolitan City-15 have made Rs 3 million in investment and switched to collective vegetable farming. Leasing 14 ropani of land, they have constructed 14 tunnels.

Bastola said that they got good returns from the sale of cucumber, bean, tomato, bitter guard, coriander and other vegetable produces. “I used to make Rs 100,000 a month in Dubai. We started vegetable farming as we had no remarkable achievements despite working abroad for long, the 36-year-old Bastola said.

They are producing both seasonal and off-seasonal green vegetables.

“There are challenges in vegetable farming. For lack of good knowledge to identify the diseases on plants, we could not make good benefits in the first lot,” Koirala said. He worked in Malaysia for five years and next five years in Dubai.

“Quitting the greed for foreign jobs, I have opted for vegetable farming, staying together with the family members. We don’t need to worry about the market for the produces as the buyers visit the farmlands itself,” Koirala shared.

According to Koirala, they plan to register the firm once the offices opens after the lockdown is over. Youngest among the three, Adhikari, 26, also shared his satisfaction for the new venture.

Currently, two others are employed in the firm on daily basis. “We have planned to save Rs 150,000 per month,” Adhikari hoped.

On a different note, Adhikari said that the farmers should be provided with more subsidies on loan, seeds, fertilizers and marketing.