Orange is the main cash crop for the people of Tsenda-Gang Gewog in Dagana with farmers earning at least Nu 100,000 from the fruit every year. But this year, with a significantly poor yield, the income from the sale of oranges is set to go down drastically.
It is being described as the worst harvest ever to hit the gewog. Some farmers say the yield is over 70 per cent less from last year.
Farmers attribute the poor yield to the untimely rainfall. “Heavy rainfall and hailstone lashed the trees just as they started flowering,” recalled Chnadra Maya Bandhari.
In the past years, Lok Bahadur earned Nu 1, 50,000 to Nu 200,000 from the sale of the fruit. What he earned this year is not even half of the past earnings. “I only got Nu 45,000 this time,” lamented Lok Bahadur.
67-year-old Sarup SinghGhimshin, a middleman, is utterly disappointed. “Last year, I took 13 DCM trucks of the fruit to Phuentshogling,” he said. “This year, four men picked oranges for five days and they couldn’t even fill up a Bolero.”
Farmers also lost some portion of the yield to monkeys raiding their orchards.
