Apple farmers in Jumla, Nepal, are receiving good prices for their crops; farmers were paid Rs 70 per kg directly from their orchards in the harvesting season. They also received good prices during the Tihar festival. Because of this, many farmers have got their apples out of storage and taken them to market.
According to District Agriculture Development Office, (DADO) Jumla, apple export from the district has been increasing in recent years. Traders in district headquarters, Khalanga, are buying apples at Rs 80 per kg from farmers and selling them at Rs 100 per kg.
Local farmers are happy as they are getting good price for their products in the local market itself.
Surja Laxmi Rawal of Talium village, has been visiting district headquarters regularly for the past week to sell apples. She said that she is getting Rs 100 for a kilogram of apples. “I am selling apples at Rs 10-20 per piece,” she said, adding that traders, who visit their homes, are offering good price for apples.
Local farmers say that apples produced in the district could be exported to big cities at high prices if there was a better storage facility in the district.
Currently, local farmers are selling royal, red and golden varieties of applies in the market.
Meanwhile, apple production in Jumla fell by 25 percent this year compared to the last year. Severe weather conditions, like hailstorms, damaged production this year. Apples worth Rs 140 million have been sold from Jumla this year, according to Bishnu Bahadur Mahat, chief of DADO Jumla.
(1 Indian Rupee=0.015USD)
Source: myrepublica.com
