Fresh roasted corns are helping roadside vendors at Khalangji along the Kurizam and Monggar highway to make an extra income. Besides augmenting their incomes, this growing business is encouraging the roadside vendors to further flex their farm-based entrepreneurial skills.
One of the roadside vendors selling roasted maize is 49-year-old Dorjila. He is from Chhaling Gewog and returned to his village six years ago.
The former taxi driver tried his hand at watermelon farming on his almost an acre of land three years ago. However, it failed to earn him an income. So, he switched to maize cultivation last year. And from this year, he started selling roasted corns along the roadside of the Kurizam and Monggar highway.
The place is about 25 kilometres away from Monggar town. Dorjila said during his taxi driving days, the roadside vendors along Lobesa and Thinleygang caught his attention.
“They were selling the roasted maize like hot cakes. They were making good cash,” said Dorjila, adding that this motivated him to do similar business back in his hometown.
On average, the roasted corns and the flattened maize or locally termed as Tengma fetch him an income of Nu 3,000. But without a stable market shed, Dorjila has to brave the weather adversities.
The Department of Roads has also objected him to operating his business in the partially open air.
“The officials told us not to sell farm produce under the plastic sheet roof. But I told them I don’t have an option. They also asked me to meet the gewog officials. When my friend went to attend the meeting, the gewog officials told us that we should construct a permanent market shed on our private land to sell our agricultural harvests,” added Dorjila.
However, he said he cannot abide by the gewog’s instructions since his land is located far away from the highway and not commercially viable.
The roads department said, to construct permanent market sheds on state lands along the highways, the vendors must seek approval from them via the gewog office.
If the approval is granted, a structure must be built three metres away from the highway, which is in line with the revised road guidelines.
But an official from the Regional Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives Office in Monggar said the highway near Khalangji was paved through the private land.
Hence, there is no possibility of constructing permanent market sheds for some eight roadside vendors.
Therefore, unless a rational solution is put on the paper, this issue will show no signs of ending.
Otherwise, the golden cereal crop will indeed become the gold for the roadside vendors in Monggar.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
Edited by Pema Lhaden
