Encouraging entrepreneurship in the hinterlands

Authorities need to invest in education to produce trained junior technical assistants.

Six years ago, pig farmer Bhim Luitel started out with 27 pigs and a Rs400,000 investment. The agro entrepreneur from Waling, Syangja now has more than 400 hogs, and his farm is valued at nearly Rs50 million. A great success story, no doubt, but at one point Luitel had been thrown into despair when his newborn piglets and even those still in the womb began dying for lack of Vitamin A, and he lost a lot of money. Rescue came in the form of low-cost Vitamin A injections from India, which worked wonders when no veterinary doctor or technical expert could determine the cause of the trouble.