November 21: Phalewas Municipality of Parbat district has distributed vegetable seeds to 6,000 farmers. The municipality has distributed the vegetable seeds to the farmers in all the wards with the objective of making the city self-reliant in vegetable production.

Kamal Ghimire, coordinator of the campaign, said that the municipality has been conducting a multi-purpose program, “Clean Phalewas Green Phalewas” for the last 3 years. The seeds have been distributed under the ‘one house, one garden campaign’ of the multi-purpose program.

Ghimire said that vegetable seeds including mustard, radish, turnip, spinach, carrot and coriander were distributed free of cost to every household in the municipality. The municipality had allocated Rs 400,000 for the ‘clean house greenhouse campaign’ this year. He said that the seeds were distributed from the same budget. “Six types of vegetable seeds worth Rs 70 have been distributed to each of the 6,000 households across the municipality,” said Ghimire adding, “Farmers would be able to produce vegetables depending upon the weather conditions in their area”. He said that about 400 plastic tunnels were distributed in 11 wards of Phalewas Municipality in the fiscal year 2076/77.

The municipality is preparing to bring another program soon to increase vegetable production for commercial farmers in the town. The people there are happy after the municipality's decision to distribute vegetable seeds free of cost. 

Farmer Devi Prasad Bhusal, a representative farmer of Ward No. 6 Devisthan, said that he would focus on vegetable production by making good use of the seeds. Santosh Subedi, agriculture officer of the municipality, said that the vegetable seeds were brought from Temperate Horticulture Development Center, Marfa, Mustang and Pokhara. He said that quality seeds of improved varieties produced in government farms have been brought and distributed to the farmers.

In order to make the farmers self-reliant in the profession of agricultural, Phalewas had earlier distributed fruit saplings free of cost. Similarly, a grant was distributed as an encouragement to those who cultivate on barren land. Mayor Padampani Sharma claimed that the municipality is now self-reliant in vegetables and seasonal fruits.