A
permanent resident of Shailung Rural Municipality, Ward No-3, Dhunge Mr. Ganesh
Bahadur Shrestha is seen as very busy these days working on his farm for
commercialized vegetable farming. This is a very good example of “where there
is a will, there is a way” by Mr. Ganesh Bahadur himself. A few years back he
was working on his farm that was only subsistence level, but today he is
established as a good agro-entrepreneur. Continuing his life in a smallholder
family, he became associated with RRN after the epidemic of COVID-19 in the
year 2020. The COVID-19 disease created difficulty to sustain even day-to-day
activities. There were support and benefits from different helping
organizations, but they were all temporary. Meanwhile, RRN is implementing a
project named Smallholder’s Empowerment by Entrepreneurship Development (SEED)
and he became a member of one of the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) the project SEED
is supporting to form such SHGS in different villages.
Then with
different activities of the SEED project along with the technical and partial
financial support from the staff members, he started nursery raising and
organic farming after having agro-ecology and off-seasonal and seasonal
vegetable production training through Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN). But more
importantly, it has inspired many other smallholders to focus on
agro-enterprises for pro-organic business-oriented farming. Now, he has started
his business by making share net houses, so that those could be used for
off-seasonal vegetables and pro-organic farming. A little number of seed and
saplings support and related training were provided by the SEED/RRN. The
regular technical assistance from the project has been a huge support to him to
earn a very good income from that farming which he thought was impossible
before bringing it into practice. Now, he came to believe that organic farming
can be a profitable and healthy business as an enterprise. He sold the
cauliflower/cabbage and earned Rs. 100,000, potato at Rs. 100,000, radish at
Rs. 30,000, and carrot at Rs. 40,000 annually.
He is also
preparing bio-fertilizer(organic) by using locally available plants and cow
urines. At this time, with a good income from organic farming, he has been able
to run his household expenses as well as for the education of his children and
grandchildren. For the upcoming days, he is planning for the cultivation of red
radish and local Sikkimese peas variety which is an indigenous crop of Dolakha
district as well as a very high price-giving crop. He is giving more priority
to organic vegetable production mainly cauliflower, cabbage, and other regular
cultivations. He is confident that business-oriented farming is one of the
better agro-enterprises to increase incomes and better life. So that he is
increasing the number of nursery tunnels and now SEED/RRN project is also
planning to support him further to demonstrate him as a model smallholder to
promote pro-organic entrepreneurship. So, other farmers in the community have
come to believe that organic farming can be an attractive agri-business which
is also highly demanded by today’s generation as well urgent needs for better
food and health of the people. He appreciated very much the concept and support
of the SEED/RRN project and its staff members for the promotion of pro-organic
agro-entrepreneurship and this is the better pathway for the future of
smallholders, their own community, and broadly for everyone!