Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), in coordination with Vegetables Production and Marketing Group (VPMG) of Sandhikharka, Arghakhanchi organized a deliberative forum in Arghakhanchi entitled “Haat-bazaar Management in Sandhikharka: history, present and future” on August 30, 2023. The forum was organized primarily to discuss the management history of haat bazar, issues faced for its proper functioning and possible way forwards for its sustainable management. The forum intended to bring together the actors of haat bazar, local government, and officials from related stakeholders to share their views on importance of haat bazar and discuss together the management strategies. While the overall coordination and facilitation of the forum was done by MPMG, SIAS provided the technical support.
The forum started with welcome remarks from Mr. Sahayogi B.C., secretary of VPMG followed by a short presentation of Dr. Maniram Banjade, Principal Investigator of the CREW project. Dr. Banjade in his presentation, highlighted the history of Sandhikharka haatbazar and the struggles faced by the VPMG for its operation till the present day. He briefly explained the challenges faced by haat bazar like conflict in space and selecting specific day for haat operation and its closure due to the COVID pandemic. In addition, he also shared the role of marketing group and SIAS in reopening the haat bazar and briefly pointed out the key pertinent issues that demands attention- particularly the haat bazaar management and related legal issues. After the presentation, the key stakeholders expressed their views regarding the operation of haat bazar and openly discussed on its existing management issues. Everyone agreed that the first step should be the preparation of market operation procedure ‘Bazar Sanchalan Karyabidhi’ to legalise the functioning of the haat bazar. Likewise, the members of marketing groups called for identifying good space with proper stalls especially for the local farmers and their products.
While one of the participants stressed on the need to maintain the cleanliness around haat bazar, others emphasized on the importance of cold storage to store the farm produce. Some of the participants remarked that the local farmers should be provided financial support during the production phase so that they can produce in large scale to accommodate the need of local market. Towards, the end of the discussion, Mr. Krishna Prasad Shrestha, Mayor of Sandhikharka Municipality in his remarks assured that municipality will manage financial support for making the permanent structures of haat. Likewise, Mr. Jib Narayan Koirala, chairperson of District Coordination Committee (DCC) suggested Agriculture Knowledge Center to form a committee for drafting and finalizing the marketing operation procedure and bringing it to an effect as soon as possible. Overall, the discussion was very fruitful and ended with commitment from all the concerned stakeholders to provide either technical or financial support for the smooth functioning of haat bazar.
