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Pokhara, July 15. Astha Giri of 7 Machhapuchhre Toll in Pokhara Metropolitan City looked happy as she bought fresh vegetables near her home on Monday evening. Many housewives like her gathered at the scene to buy vegetables.
The Pokhara Municipal Corporation has opened a farmers’ market at Ratna Chowk in Sector VII to sell vegetables brought from villages by agro ambulances, and consumers are happy about it. Holding vegetables like farsi munta, golbenda, bitter gourd, etc., Astha said, “We used to go to Prithvi Chowk to bring vegetables, so we are happy to get fresh vegetables so close to home.” If this market continues to operate, will we be able to buy fresh vegetables every day?
To promote consumption of local products, the Pokhara Municipality has opened farmers’ markets across Pokhara. The municipality is running agricultural ambulances to transport agricultural products produced in villages to the markets.
The agricultural ambulance helps in the sale and distribution of vegetables produced in the rural areas of the metropolitan city free of charge. The agricultural ambulance has been launched in the city since last year. Manhar Kadariya, director of the Agriculture and Economic Development Department of the metropolitan city, said that the agricultural ambulance connects producers and consumers.
According to him, there are seven places in Pokhara that hold farmers’ markets once a week, but due to the increase in demand, some districts hold markets twice a week. The department’s head, Kadariya, said that the city has set up collection centers at 21 locations to collect agricultural products produced by small farmers in rural areas. Ambulances reach these places and transport the agricultural products to the market.
“Even if big farmers bring their own vehicles to the market to sell, small farmers cannot do so. Now, farmers bring their produce to collection centres and farm ambulances transport them to the market from there,” said Chief Kadariya.
It is said that with the operation of the agricultural ambulance, consumers in the market have been able to eat fresh vegetables without pesticides. The head of the department, Kadalia, said that vegetables transported from outside would be damaged and contaminated before, but now it only takes one to two hours from producer to consumer. He said: “Before, when vegetables were brought from outside, they would be damaged. They were also contaminated. If the vegetables are transported by an ambulance with moisturizing facilities, they will not deteriorate. It only takes one or two hours from producer to consumer.”
The ambulance helps in reducing damage to agricultural produce, transporting agricultural produce safely from the place of production to the market centres, eliminating marketing and middlemen, removing the stress of transporting vegetables to the market, encouraging local production and supply of fresh vegetables to consumers’ homes.
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