Saroj Khanal was at the peak of his acting career in the Nepali movie industry when he left for the US in 1997. It came as a shock to many as he was doing very well. His movies were a hit and he was competing well against the likes of Rajesh Hamal and Bhuwan KC. But, Khanal wanted a change and left for the US.
“The circumstances in the country was quite bad,” says Khanal. “The country was in turmoil due to the war and I didn’t want my children to grow up in such an environment.”
In the US, Saroj Khanal spent over 15 years working in the F&B sector along with doing various events in the country. But now, as his children have grown up, Khanal, giving up everything he had in the US, has come back. But, he is not here to reinstate his movie career. Although he knows that it is behind him, he is here to operate his family business and create a legacy away from the big screen.
“It was always inevitable that I returned home. Now, I hope to do something in agriculture that may inspire the young generation.”
Learning from the American dream
When Saroj Khanal was in the US, he had seen how the chicken was a part of people’s everyday life. Compared to Nepal, where people mostly eat meat only on Saturdays, in the US, people consume them on a daily basis.
“When I realised that, I wanted to see how chickens were produced there. After a few years in the US, I did get to go to a farm.”
When Saroj Khanal went to the farm, he was blown away by how different it was from the poultry farm operated by his family in Nawalpur of Nepal. It was huge and had a biosecurity feature that meant the mortality rate of chicken was significantly low. When he visited these farms, he realised that the way poultry farming was done in Nepal was wrong.
“I went to three huge farms in the US. It was there I realised how profitable the business could be if it was done right. The visits also taught me the dangers of doing it wrong.”
Back home to build it better
Taking all that into consideration, Saroj Khanal returned home and with it, brought the technology needed to take Khanal Poultry to the next level. The first thing he did after coming to Nepal was focus on biosecurity. He wanted his chickens to be safe and to make sure they were, he made sure anyone going inside the chicken house was fully sanitised.
“What I also did was set up air conditioning in the chicken farm which made sure that the temperatures didn’t go above 28 C,” says Khanal.
The second thing Saroj Khanal focused on was water. Nepal’s water, although natural, is not good for these broiler birds. So he started purifying water spending over Rs 10 million to set up a purifying plant.
Lastly, he cut down the number of people working on the farm. But, before he did that, he set up everything he needed inside the farm that would help me cut down the staff.
“People can transmit different diseases and that is what I wanted to stop from happening, so I stopped more than two people from entering the farm. I myself rarely go in when I do I follow all protocols.”
Fighting the fragility
The farm, according to Saroj Khanal, has nearly 500,000 chickens of different age groups as he believes that his farm is one of the biggest farms in the country. But even when he is fulfilling all safety protocols, chickens are dying which shows how fragile the business is.
“The mortality rate was quite high in the beginning, but with time and effort we’ve put into it, it has gone down as now only two out of a hundred die.”
The Khanal Poultry also has its own hatchery and feed which has helped the company a lot. He says that the feed is prepared after consulting a chicken doctor who tells them what nutrients they should add to ensure the chickens are healthier.
“We’ve left no stone unturned to ensure that we produced the best chickens in the country and I feel that we have done that.”
But to make things better, Saroj Khanal says the industry needs help from the government. He hopes, in the future, the government will draft favourable policies to ensure major players in the market do not control the prices.
“We need to get rid of the unhealthy competition.”
After the success of poultry, Saroj Khanal now also wants to try his hand at agriculture and is planning to grow lemons across over 25 acres of land. He says he wants to show the younger generation that things can be done in the country if they use the technology and effort into it.
“If I am able to inspire the younger generation into doing something in Nepal, I think I will have left a legacy that will show what I did as an actor.”
