Waling, Jan. 28: Rajendra Prasad Gaire of Walling Municipality-10 is equally active in agriculture and politics. One can feel that he is still young while observing his active life in politics and agriculture even though he has completed seven decades of his life. He reaches his farm early in the morning and spends the whole day with the plants of oranges, bananas, and other seasonal fruits.

Gaire is the President for Syangja district of the National People’s Front. Since he should also be active in politics, he has employed two workers in the agricultural farm. He has experienced that no matter how many people you have, if you don’t do it by yourself, you can’t produce as much as you think.

Gaire, who started fruit farming after buying 60 ropanis of fallow land, earned Rs. 1 million by selling oranges this year. The sweet lime and banana crops in his garden are starting to yield income, and he is hopeful of increased income in the years to come. He has been involved in fruit farming for over two decades now. 

He has been giving equal importance to politics and agricultural works for the past 10 years. He argues that there will be a problem if he does not manage or earn the money that he needs to spend by himself. 

There is an understanding that Nepal’s leaders do not pay attention to earning and only do politics which has contributed to increased corruption, he said. He said that he started fruit farming since 2056-57 BS. He has registered his agricultural farm and does the business formally. 

Gaire had entered into politics by supporting the CPN (Marxist-Leninist) while he was a student in Tansen, Palpa. He joined All Nepal Peasants Association in 1991 and elected the district secretary of the NPF known as Rastriya Janamorcha Nepal in 1993. Later in 1999, he was elected as 

the district president of the NPF and has been serving in the same capacity since then. 

He has sent an example for the youth that they can involve themselves in agriculture or any business in the country and earn a good amount of money while staying with their family. 

“We should not just do politics, we should be able to earn our own expenses,” he said. He has planted orange plants in his land and created a forest of fruits. Of the 1,800 plants he has planted in the forest, 300 have started growing fruits and yielding income.