Syangja. Galyang municipality of Syangja district has provided Rs 5,000 to farmers rearing oxen. As many as 115 farmers have been provided with incentives to attract farmers towards plough bull rearing as the number of oxen is decreasing with the use of technology in recent period.

Chief Administrative Officer of Galyang Municipality, Yubaraj Adhikari, said that each farmer has been provided Rs 5,000 as per the applications received from 115 farmers for 116 oxen.

With the increasing use of mechanical plows (power tillers) in recent times, there is a shortage of skilled manpower to operate mechanical ploughs, there is no easy availability of fuel in the rural areas and it is more difficult to repair the mechanical plough after it breaks down.

The Farmers’ Incentive Grant Program has been launched with the objective of encouraging farmers to rear oxen for the current fiscal year 2082/83. The municipality had issued a notice to invite applications from farmers rearing plow oxen to provide incentives to farmers rearing plow oxen. Acting on the information, 116 farmers from all 11 wards of the municipality had applied for the incentive amount, said technician at the municipality’s livestock service section, Mahadev Ban.

“We asked the farmers for an application from the municipality to provide incentives related to plough bulls. “The amount was paid to the farmers’ accounts after the municipality monitored the farmers who had insured the oxen and applied for the insurance on the basis of information,” he said. ’

He claimed that the number of oxen in the municipality is more than the number of applications received, but the farmers may not have applied even after getting information. The government has also continued the programme to provide incentive grants to farmers rearing oxen for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84. Farmers who have not received the incentive grant in the current fiscal year will get the grant in the coming fiscal year.