Farms in Salyan Phant in Dhairing in Jaljala Rural Municipality-7, Parbat district, are currently full of vegetables. The fields here look beautiful with vegetables, including cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber and tomato. 

The village lies about 270 km west of Kathmandu and 64 km from Pokhara, Capital of Gandaki Province. 

The fields here have irrigation facility round the year. 

Dhairing, a village that borders Myagdi district, is a model village for vegetable cultivation and is known as vegetable pocket area. Most of the farmers here have been cultivating vegetable in commercial scale. 

Ek Narayan Poudel, a leading farmer, informed that the village earns about Rs. 20 million from vegetable sales in a year. 

“Vegetable cultivation has become the major livelihood of farmers in the village. After getting good income from vegetable farming, the youth who went abroad have also returned to their villages and started this work,” he said. 

According to him, the farmers here are earning from Rs. 200,000 to Rs. 1 million annually from vegetable farming.

One hundred families of the village are involved in commercial vegetable farming. With the income received from the sale of fresh vegetables and seeds, the farmers have bought land in nearby cities and even in Pokhara. 

Paudel, who has been in this job for 27 years now, said, “Vegetable farming has also brought back youths to the village from abroad. Vegetable farming has made the village prosperous.’’ According to him, the fresh vegetables produced here reach Beni, Baglung, and Kusma, the headquarters of Myagdi, Baglung and Parbat districts. 

Balram Acharya, a local farmer, said that there is no problem for the sale of the produce. “You don’t have to carry it on your head like before. If you can produce, you can sell vegetables from home through phone. Traders from Beni come to the field with their vehicles to buy vegetables,’’ he said.

Arjun Paudel, a young farmer, said that the income from vegetable farming has brought a positive change in the lifestyle of the farmers here. “Working on your own land gives you a sense of pride. If you work hard, you can get good income from vegetable farming,” he said. 

Besides Salyan, Baskot, Dharapani and Ghayakhet are also making their names in vegetable farming. 

The local government has been supporting the farmers by providing training and technology to increase production.