No apples in Niseldhor, Dhorpatan; farmers suffer losses

This year, farmers in Niseldhor and Dhorpatan are worried because apple trees have not produced fruit. In Nisikhola Rural Municipality–5, places like Kunde, Gabha, and Kangla have seen almost no apple harvest. Similarly, in Dhorpatan Municipality–9, including Navi, Bhuji, and Syalpakh, apple production has also dropped sharply.

These areas are known as the main apple-producing zones of the district, but even here, yields have gone down. Local farmer Hemraj Sapkota said the apple trees he planted on four ropanis of land did not even produce 10 percent of last year’s output. He has been farming apples for nearly ten years, but in the last three years, production has fallen steadily.

“Last year we got fewer apples, but this year most of the trees are completely empty. This is happening because of climate change. In the past, rain used to come on time and we got good harvests. But in recent years, rain does not come when it should. Even after investing a lot of money, we are facing heavy losses,” Sapkota explained. “This year is shocking. Except for one or two apples, the trees are bare. If this continues, maybe next year we won’t get a single fruit.”

Another farmer, Man Bahadur Gharti, said a long drought last winter prevented apple production. He added that many farmers have already faced big financial losses.

Gharti said that except for the Italian Fuji variety, almost no other types of apples have grown. “In the past, we could sell apples worth one to one and a half lakh rupees. This year, we did not even produce apples worth two thousand,” he said. “The main problem was the long drought and lack of snowfall. Apples used to grow well when there was snow, but this year we got neither snow nor rain.”

According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, apples are usually grown on 56.92 hectares of land across the district, producing about 331.2 metric tonnes every year. But this year, production has dropped sharply. Information officer Santosh Adhikari confirmed that apple output is down by a large margin.