Farmer Laxmi Kumar Shrestha of Dhungedhara, Khandbari has been offered the advance money by Sher Bahadur Basnet, a trader of Dingla, Bhojpur. Shrestha eventually agreed to take Rs200,000 as advance payment out of the amount offered after the trader’s repeated visits to his farm. Rudraksha is the seed of the Eliocarpus ganitrus tree which is also used for the treatment of various diseases in traditional medicine. The trees are mostly found in Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

“Last month, traders came here and asked me to name a price for the tree,” said Shrestha. “After their repeated requests, I finally took Rs200,000 as advance.” Although the fruits that the tree is expected to bear have been estimated to be worth Rs2.5 million, they will be sold as per the market rate, Shrestha said.

Shrestha has been earning handsome income from the tree for the last three years. According to him, the tree produced 1,300 seeds last year. “I sold them for Rs1.2 million, and Basnet was the one who bought them.” Shrestha estimates that the tree will yield more than 4,000 seeds this year.

Although people prefer single facet or ekmukhi rudraksha seeds and they are in high demand, Shrestha said that panchamukhi seeds with five ridges were the most common. Ekmukhi seeds with just one seed chamber are extremely rare and are said to have miraculous healing powers.

Moti Shankar, another trader, said that buyers offer advance payment to farmers by going to their houses. Panchamukhi seeds used to fetch Rs30 per kg three years ago, but after Nepali rudraksha seeds started getting a market in China, prices started to skyrocket. A seed that used to cost Rs5 now costs Rs2,000, said Shankar.

Traders said that the price of a rudraksha seed depends on the number of ridges it has. A seed having two ridges costs Rs20,000 to Rs30,000, while those with three ridges were sold for Rs300 to Rs500 apiece last year. Likewise, prices of seeds with six and seven ridges range from Rs40 to Rs100 and Rs500 to Rs1,000 respectively. Seeds with eight ridges fetch Rs1,500 to Rs3,000. Similarly, seeds with nine, 10 and 11 ridges cost Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 apiece.

Rudraksha seeds having more than 20 ridges are more expensive. Seeds with 20 ridges fetch Rs500,000 to Rs1.5 million, while those with 27 and 28 ridges are priced over Rs4 million. Traders said that farmers were earning millions of rupees by selling rudraksha seeds. As the trade in rudraksha seeds has started to flourish, the district development office has also begun to impose taxes on it, and more than 1,000 traders have been issued licences to deal in them.