Resham Lal Shrestha, a farmer from Dhunibesi Municipality of Dhading district is dismayed at the prices he is being paid for his vegetables. “We are compelled to sell our tomato at Rs. 30 per kg, whereas sellers in Kathmandu charge Rs. 90 for the same,” said Shrestha sharing what was one of the biggest worries of the farmers engaged in fruits and vegetable farming in the districts adjoining the Kathmandu valley.

Most of the local farmers whom I met and interacted during a recent monitoring visit had a common concern: “we are not receiving the fair share of the profit.” They say they are forced to sell their produce, especially fruits and vegetables, at a throwaway price due to lack of storage facility, presence of different layers of business persons and easy access to market.

I found several things that are hindering farmers to get into the market. Due to difficult geographic condition, farmers have limited access to transportation which means they are unable to supply their perishable fruits and vegetable on time. Similarly, they don’t have proper storage system and collection centres with cooling facilities, which would have allowed them some ground for price negotiation. There is a serious crisis of workforce in the farming sector as the young generation is not attracted to this sector and desperate to migrate for different opportunities.

Studies carried out on value chain/market analysis of the offseason fruits and vegetables also echo similar challenges facing the farmers. According to a study some of the major constraints of this sector includes post-harvest losses due the perishable nature of fruits and vegetables, limited access to reliable market information and limited collection centers among others.

To operationalize cooperative market chain of fruits and vegetables to increase farmers’ income and other livelihood opportunities, the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoLCPA) initiated the Cooperative Market Development Programme (CMDP) in collaboration with UNDP. The programme aims to increase quality, quantity and consistency of the supply of fruits and vegetable production in the selected six districts viz. Lalitpur, Kavre, Makwanpur, Chitwan, Dhading and Nuwakot through infrastructure (market collection centres and outlets) development, training and support on farming techniques, marketing and institutional capacity building.   

As part of the project, out of 72 collection centers targeted to be constructed,  18 have been completed as of June 2019. Interacting with the observation team, farmer from the same locality, Netra Raj Poudel thanked the programme for constructing the collection centres.“With this new collection center in place, we are confident that we can better respond to the market demand. This kind of organized efforts from the Government and UNDP has encouraged us and I believe such efforts will also help us attract our next generation in the farming sector,” he added.

Lately, there is a very positive vibe among the farmers about their future, particularly after the Ministry placed special priority to this programme, making it a “dream project” to improve farmers income. The project envisions developing satellite markets at central level, regional market in Chitwan, district level markets at Kavre, Nuwakot, Makwanpur and Dhading; municipal level marketing outlets in possible municipalites and primary collection centres in at least 72 pocket areas, which is likely, to establish a systematic chain.