When friends and neighbours began leaving for foreign jobs, Khem Pandey followed the same path. Twenty-two years ago, he left his village in Argha Beltari of Sandhikharka Municipality-10 for India, where he spent seven years working. He then moved to Malaysia and worked there for another six years.

After 13 years abroad, however, Pandey returned home with a different ambition: to build a livelihood in his own village.

He later prepared to go to South Korea in the hope of earning more. He studied Korean in Kathmandu, sat the language test and was selected. But when he learnt that he would have to work in the agricultural sector there, he reconsidered.

“If I was going to work on someone else’s farm in South Korea, I thought I would rather build an agricultural enterprise in my own village,” Pandey said. “I had been selected to go to South Korea, but when I learnt that I would be working in agriculture there, I lost interest. I returned determined to make my birthplace an agricultural Korea.”

Pandey began with a single Jersey cow that he brought from Kathmandu. As income from selling milk started coming in, he expanded his herd by seven cows. He also began cultivating vegetables after preparing his farmland.

It has now been 15 years since he started his agricultural enterprise. During that period, he has invested more than Rs100 million in livestock, vegetables and food crops through Trikanya Gauri Agriculture and Livestock Farm. As the farm has generated income, he has reinvested the earnings each year in farm infrastructure, high-tech tunnels, equipment and technology.

The farm now covers about 60 ropanis of land, including some plots taken on lease. Vegetables are grown throughout the year, with tomatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers, bottle gourds and sponge gourds currently being cultivated in high-tech tunnels.

Rice, maize, wheat and various spice crops are also part of the farm’s production system. Pandey uses an intercropping approach to make better use of his land.

Pandey has continued to expand his livestock operation. Of the 19 cattle and buffaloes at his shed, six are buffaloes and five are milking cows. The remaining animals are likely to give birth.

The farm generates annual transactions of about Rs1.2 million from the sale of milk, vegetables and food crops, Pandey said, leaving him with savings of around Rs600,000.

Income from the farm has allowed him to buy a plot of land in Sandhikharka, where he is building a two-and-a-half-storey concrete house in the village. He has also used the earnings to educate his two sons and a daughter in Kathmandu.

His day begins early. Pandey loads milk onto his motorcycle and rides to Sandhikharka-Chutrabesi market, where he has a regular customer base. After selling the milk, he returns home and spends the rest of the day working in the fields and tending to his livestock.

But finding enough workers has become increasingly difficult.

Pandey attributes the shortage of agricultural labour to falling birth rates, families moving to market centres so their children can receive better education, rising migration, young people leaving for foreign employment and families using remittance income to buy houses and land in cities before abandoning village life.

“We cannot produce as much as we would like because we cannot find enough workers for the farm,” he said. “Agriculture has a bright future, but the way farming is viewed here is still a problem. Farmland in neighbouring areas is gradually being left fallow.”

Pandey believes farmers can achieve good yields if they invest enough labour and care in their fields. He uses cattle and buffalo manure instead of chemical fertilisers.

“If you provide the fields with the right nutrients and put in the necessary work, you can grow almost anything,” he said. “Even if you sell only a little, you earn some money. I am satisfied with this life.”

Government support has also played a role in Pandey’s agricultural venture.

Bishnubahadur Magrati, senior agricultural development officer with the National Agriculture Modernisation Programme, said the government has been supporting commercial farmers with technology and equipment.

“Pandey and many other farmers have received 50 percent subsidies for tools, equipment and plastic tunnels,” Magrati said. “We also provide commercial farmers with technical training, advice on protecting crops from pests and diseases, and technologies that can increase production on small plots of land.”

Pandey was once among the many young Nepalis leaving the country in search of work. After spending 13 years in India and Malaysia, he eventually returned home and chose to build his livelihood from the land.