Pirtiram Praja Chepang has been a farmer for many years. When he remembers his past and compares it with the present, Pirtiram finds ease in farming now since the ploughing machines entered the village.
Pirtiram had been farming in his fields at Tamlang, an area in Ward 7 of Kailash Rural Municipality, with two oxen until mini two-wheeler tractor with plough was introduced here.
One of his oxen is still in the shed but unused. Like Pirtiram, many farmers in the village have stopped using their oxen for ploughing since the mini tractors have arrived. The reason – the machine improved their farming with safety and efficiency.
“It doesn’t matter whether it is night or day, the machine yields more result than the oxen. Similarly, it has also reduced the risk of using ox for ploughing lands in steep, narrow and small areas,” said Pirtiram.
While Pirtiram has one ox left in his shed, many have already stopped keeping them. As per the farmers, compared to the tractors, the oxen were hard to raise and sustain.
According to agriculture technician at Kailash Rural Municipality Umesh Gurung, the trend of using the two-wheeler tractors with plough trailers has increased in the villages.
“While raising oxen, the people had to manage grass and hay. It is also difficult task to plough with oxen than using the machine due to which the tractors are being popular,” said Gurung.
The ones who used to hire oxen for ploughing have also started calling for tractor since it completes the work soon and is cheaper.
Nevertheless, the authorities have not been able to meet the required demands.
The Kailash Rural Municipality’s data show that in the recent fiscal year, 113 villagers asked for the mini two-wheeler tractors under 50 per cent grant. But it was only able to provide the tractors to 16 farmers with the budget of Rs. 600,000 they had.
“We were restrained by our budget but in the upcoming fiscal year we will allocate enough in agriculture sector. We have known the importance of using new technologies properly to yield more result in farming,” said Gurung.
As per the farmers, the only flaw of the machine is that they don’t have mechanics around to repair it at the earliest and there is sometimes shortage of fuel due to the pandemic-led restriction order.
Kailash Rural Municipality’s farmers have been cultivating maize, millet, buck-wheat and wheat, among others.
Source : THE RISING NEPAL,
