Dev Kumar Sunuwar. Jumla Aug. 1 (Kathmandu Post)

People of 10 VDCs in this Mid - Western district have taken to herb farming in a big way. This endeavour, which enjoys support of the Ministry of forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC), is helping bail the people out5 of penury. On top of it, commercial farming of herbs has helped conserve medicinal plants that were in peril in the wild, thanks to unabated collection that was going on till 2005. The edicinal plants are in high demand in the international market and fetch good price too, says Laxmi Chandra Mahat, district project faciliator for the herb farming project.
"Apart from herb conservation, this project will be instrumental in raising the living standard of local people," says Mahat. According to statistics of the district project office, farmers have cultivated at least 10 kinds of herbs in some 1,500 hectares in Jumla.
"Cultivating crops, we used to find it hard to meet day-to-day expenses even for six months. Now that we have taken to herb farming, we hope to get a better return," says kali bahadur Thapa of Patmara VDC.
In the fiscal year 2008/09, people of patmara sold 120 kg of herbs and earned about Rs. 130,000.0 The profit motivated them and they planted herbs in some 300 hectares in their village. Taking a leaf from Jumla, the MoFSC plans to expand the herb farming project in 11 districts of four zones in three phases by 2014. The International Fund for Agriculture Development has loaned Rs 1.5 billion to the ministry for the Rs 2.17 billion project, according to Mahat.
..........................................................

Nepal Herbal products have potential to export. Making rich product with nice packaging and encouraging thousands of farmer in Nepal could lift life style of Nepal Villagers. Their is plenty of potential so use the potential. Also Hemp plant has such tremendious use. Look to the article : Nepal Hemp Plant (How to bring into better use ??) .
This Article gives you even more hints. We have not discover better hemp fibre, hemp oil and many other things which we can sell directly in national and international market. This could be even lending instruments for bank and finance. The reality is also that Banking are not willing to lend sizable amount of loan to farmers; the reason why?, they don't have much return in their products. There are hell of things to look at by the government of Nepal, Nepal bankers and financial institutions. Beside these someone has to confirmed what he/she is getting??.