International Journal of Horticulture, 2026, Vol.16, No.4, 214-227 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 222 Farmers occasionally sold vegetables through contract buyers or companies where buyers directly collected produced from farms based on prior agreements. 3.5 Annual income by vegetable farming under plastic tunnel The annual reported income from protected vegetable farming varied among farmers. About 38% of farmers reported earnings of more than NRs. 3 lakhs annually, 24% had an annual income between 2-3 lakhs, 21% earned NRs. 1-2 lakhs, and 17% earned less than NRs. 1 lakh (Figure 7). The findings indicate that tunnel vegetable farming has become an important source of cash income for farmers of Meghang Rural Municipality. Finding of the study was in coincides with Bhandari and Paudel (2021), who reported that the lowest proportion of farmers earned less than one lakh annually from vegetable farming while assessing farmers’ income from vegetable production. The study of vegetable farmer’s livelihood in Kathmandu valley by Rai et al. (2019) also found the minimum earning of the vegetable farming ranging from NRs. 50,000 to 500,000. Figure 7 Annual income by vegetable farming under plastic tunnel 3.6 Income expenditure by respondents The income from the farming was wisely utilized in different aspect of life. 15% of the earnings was allocated towards food stuffs (Figure 8). Likewise, a significant portion i.e. 21% of the income was dedicated to education, while 14% was used for healthcare purposes. 8% of earning was used in clothing, 23% was used as savings and the remaining 19% was used in other expenses such as buying agriculture inputs, travel and entertainment. Figure 8 Income expenditure by respondents
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