KHATMANDU: Gurung three years ago said goodbye to his lucrative hotel business in Thamel and returned to his village, setting his sights on making Manang the largest apple producing district.
The apple farmer now has turned a full-fledged politician. On Friday, Gurung was elected to the federal parliament from Manang from the CPN UML ticket, securing 2,300 votes. He defeated former state minister and Nepali Congress leader Tek Bahadur Gurung, who garnered 2,021 votes. Gurung is known for changing traditional methods of apple farming. His orchard spread across 450 ropanis in neshyang Rural municipality has around 67,000 apple trees. These trees first started bearing fruits three years ago. This year, Gurung recorded a bumper harvest, with sales revenue expected to hit a whopping Rs50 million. Gurung is planning to further increase apple production by expanding the size of the farm and raising investment to Rs230 million.
