KATHMANDU, Oct 29: Apples produced in the Manaslu region of northern Gorkha have been stranded in warehouses after floods washed away bridges and roads, leaving farmers and traders with no reliable way to transport their harvest to market.
Trader Lakpa Dundup Lama said he had been forced to store the apples because no viable transport option remained.
On October 11, a flood triggered after an avalanche blocked the Ungilung Khola in Chumnubri Rural Municipality Ward 6 swept away dozens of bridges and sections of roads along the Budhigandaki River.
The disaster disrupted travel and blocked the Benighat Arughat Larke road, considered the lifeline of northern Gorkha. The road was impassable between Sirdibas in Chumnubri Rural Municipality and Arkhet in Arughat.
The rural municipality and the Gorkha Road Project have been working to reopen the road temporarily. But the repairs have yet to make it possible to transport apples, Lama said.
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“The rural municipality has managed to create a path for people to walk, but mules cannot use it. Transporting apples on mules is out of the question,” he said.
Lama grows several varieties of apples in an orchard at Namrung in Ward 4 of Chumnubri Rural Municipality, at an altitude of 2,650 metres. His apple farm, In Gorkha Product Pvt Ltd, produced around 100,000 kilograms of apples this year.
The orchard has 12,500 trees producing Gala, Golden, Red Delicious, King Delicious and Fuji varieties.
“We have harvested almost all the apples except some Fuji. The Gala and Golden Delicious apples were picked a month ago and have already started to spoil,” Lama said.
The situation has worsened because a flood in the Therang Khola on September 6 washed away a micro hydropower plant, cutting off electricity to his farm. Without power, the apple dryer has remained out of operation, preventing him from processing the fruit into dried apples.
Despite a good harvest this year, Lama fears that hundreds of thousands of kilograms of apples could go to waste because of the transport disruptions.
Transport difficulties are a recurring problem for apple growers in the Manaslu region, but this year's floods have made the situation much worse. It normally takes about a week to carry apples from Namrung and surrounding areas to markets by mule. During the journey, 20 to 25 percent of the fruit is lost.
Farmers say apples are often damaged when they knock against one another on narrow trails. Exposure to sunlight also causes the fruit to wilt, adding to post-harvest losses.
Transporting apples by helicopter is not a practical alternative because the high cost raises prices and makes the fruit difficult to sell.
“Even when half the apples were lost, we used to transport the rest by mule. Now the floods have damaged the bridges and roads, leaving us without even that option. We are in serious trouble,” Lama said.
With no road network connecting the area to markets, transporting apples and other agricultural products has long been a major challenge for local farmers.
As flood damage has made transportation nearly impossible, some growers have begun drying apples in the sun or making apple based alcoholic beverages. But farmers with large harvests have few options beyond processing a portion of their produce and watching the rest rot.
