Success Story of Vegetable Seedling Entrepreneur (Nursery Man)

Mr. Madhav Prasad Dahal, a marginal farmer from Sidhupalchowk district's Shikharpur-10, Melamchi, has a joint household of nine people. He is raising vegetable seedlings for his own farm and community members utilizing current nursery technology. Prior to the introduction of the PCdM project, he relied on insufficient traditional system of vegetable seedling production. He lives in Shikharpur, which is surrounded by villages with a lot of potential for cultivating vegetables. Farmers in the area followed traditional methods to raise seedlings with a lower germination rate and buy seedlings from a commercial nursery in Panchkhal during times of scarcity.
Following the project's intervention in the area, the situation has changed for better. Resulting in the community and adjacent farmers having easy access to nursery seedlings. The nursery farmer built the screened tunnel for seedling production after receiving multiple trainings in modern nursery management and assistance from the project team. The farmers remarked that the screened tunnel house, nursery plastic tray, cocopit, and vermi-compost are all new to them and appear to be very significant in the development of high-quality seedlings. Farmers learnt about growing seedlings on nursery plastic trays utilizing cocopit and multistoried space allocation to maximize area. Farmers were educated about the costs of production and the profits that may be achieved in the nursery industry. 
The program inspired Mr. Madhav to start a nursery business with the goal of providing high-quality, healthy seedlings to the community. By the end of October 2021, a nursery was established at Shikharpur-10, Melamchi with all of the necessary nursery equipment under the support of PCdM project. The nursery workers had begun cultivating vegetable seedlings such as tomato, onion, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, and capsicum. The efforts were rewarded with a lump sum of Rs. 40,000 over a two-month period. Currently, Madhav is providing services to the PCdM farmer group at a 50% discount rate, while the rest of the farmers are paying full price.
Farmers in the area are pleased with the establishment of nursery in their doorsteps as it saves their time.