Myagdi. Karma itself introduces. When you do good deeds, you get the expected results. Along with the name comes the price. This is what happened to Krishnalal Sapkota of Mangala Rural Municipality-3 Baranja of Myagdi. In the district, he has created the identity of a model farmer. Sapkota, the headmaster of Mahendra Ratna Secondary School in Baranja, has expanded lemon cultivation in the paddy field.
600 lemon plants have been grown in 12 plantation fields through Sapkota Suntala Farm, which is owned by Sapkota. The plants planted four years ago have started bearing fruit. 300 biju and 300 grafted seedlings have been planted in the farm. The grafted plants started producing from last year. Sapkota expects production to increase this year in the farm which sold 50 kg of lemons last year.
Sapkota has been managing lemon farming. Landlord Dilaram Kandel, who is employed abroad, and former land owner Prakash Tulachan are also partners in farming. Sapkota said that lemon farming was started according to the plan of Tulachan in Japan.
The goal is to process the lemons produced in the farm and export them to Japan. Earlier, paddy, corn, millet and wheat were grown in the field. Lemon cultivation has been started as an alternative to food crops. I spend evenings and holidays in the garden. Sapkota said, “I have been mobilizing workers for godling, pruning and sewage”, “I have done lemon farming with the aim of increasing the attraction towards fruit farming and showing that there is potential in it.”
Sapkota is also involved in commercial orange farming since 2063. He made an annual income of Rs. He said that he will earn five lakhs. He claims that it is the biggest lemon farm in the district. Sapkota plans to further expand commercial fruit farming after retirement. With the inspiration of Sapkota, the farmers of Baranja have also started expanding commercial orange farming.
Constituent Assembly member Gam Bahadur Sris, who is also a local resident, said that Sapkota played an important role in attracting farmers to fruit farming. He has been giving training on orange orchard management. “Krishnalal sir has played an important role in attracting the youth and farmers towards orange fruit farming”, said Sris, “I have also spent the spare time from politics and social work in orange farming, goat rearing and beekeeping”.
According to Bimal Rokamagar, Agriculture Officer of Mangala Rural Municipality, lemon cultivation can be done in Nepal at an altitude of 100 to 1,400 meters above sea level. A place with 8 to 10 hours of sunshine daily, 800 to 1000 mm of annual rainfall and a temperature of 10 to 35 degrees Celsius is considered suitable for this.
Well-drained, light loam and soil with sufficient organic matter are suitable for lemon cultivation. The risk of damage from wild animals is also relatively low in lemon crops. Agricultural officer Rokamagar said that in Nepal Sunkagati-1, Sunkagati-2 and Terhathum local varieties of lemons are being cultivated.