Kathmandu, May 9
Farmers in Bajrabarahi, Thaha municipality-6 of the Makawanpur district, some kilometres south of Kathmandu, have thrown kilograms of cauliflowers and other vegetables they produced complaining they could not find a market to sell them.
The farmers said they would sell their produce to Kathmandu, but with the lockdown in place in the capital, they could not supply them.
The number of farmers throwing the vegetables on the road is at least 12, according to Rajendra Bidari, who would collect the vegetables from them and supply to the traders in Kathmandu.
Nirmala Bidari, a local farmer, says she threw around 5,000 kgs of cauliflower produced in her farmland that is around 1,250 square metres wide. She said she was selling the vegetable for Rs 50 per kg one day before the capital went on lockdown.
Meanwhile, traders at Kathmandu’s biggest vegetable market, Kalimati, have complained they are not buying the vegetables in bulk as the consumers are not buying much.
Yogendra Dhungana, one of them, says, “In particular, local productions such as cauliflowers, cabbages, tomatoes, bitter gourds, and bottle gourds have been hit hard by the prohibitory order. It has been difficult to sell them even at the lowest price.”
Before the lockdown, Kathmandu would import around 900 tons of vegetables, which has now decreased to 400 tons, informs Binaya Shrestha, the information officer at the Kalimati Vegetable and Fruit Market.
