Planting coffee instead of corn and wheat

Arghakhanchi, 13 March: The women of Shitganga Municipality-3 Khasarka of Arghakhanchi have formed a women’s awareness women’s coffee farmers group and are engaged in commercial coffee farming. After the demand increased, they formed a group of 20 people and started coffee farming. Meena Bhusal, the president of Coffee Women’s Group, said that there is sufficient income from coffee farming.

Neupane, a local farmer, said that Khasarka’s women are planting coffee in the fields of maize and wheat. He says that he started coffee farming because he can get more income from coffee than other farming. Mitralal Belvase of Sitganga-3 Thada has planted more than 10,000 coffee plants in 200 plantations. After working in India, he returned to the village and bought land in Thada and Jukena to cultivate coffee.

Now he plans to plant five thousand more coffee plants. Ramnath Pandey, head of the Prime Minister’s Agriculture Modernization Project, said that the organic and parchment coffee produced in Arghakhanchi is being exported to Korea, America and Japan. Coffee produced at an altitude of 800 meters to 1,600 meters is considered delicious. “The demand for our coffee abroad has increased”, said Pandey.

The Prime Minister’s Agriculture Modernization Project has implemented 50 percent and 85 percent subsidy programs targeting farmers who produce organic coffee. The project has been supporting the farmers through plant subsidy, nursery management, irrigation tank work and technical support.