The demand for avocado from Zhemgang has fallen, which has directly impacted the income of the farmers of Kikhar village of Nangkor Gewog.
After the orange yield started falling due to citrus greening, Kikhar farmers opted for avocado. They slowly replaced the orange trees with avocado.
The earning from the fruit was in between Nu 20,000 and Nu 150,000 depending on the number of trees the farmers owned.
However, this season, much to their dismay, the business is bleak.
“The business is not good this time. Usually, private nursery farms in Gelephu and nearby Agriculture Research Centre buy our produce but not this season. We are facing difficulty in selling our harvest,” Tshering Norbu from Kikhar said.
“We could not sell the fruits. Some of our yield has gone bad, while the rest is yet to be plucked from the trees. The business is slow this time,” Minjur Dorj said.
Kikhar has about 60 households with each owning about five to ten avocado trees.
Earlier, they fetched Nu 250 for a kilogram of the fruit in Zhemgang, while in the capital the price hit Nu 400 per kilogram.
