Sankhuwasabha: Maoists in the district have started commercial farming to support their activists and pay off party loans. They have been raising pigs on a piece of land they have leased in Ramche and have also started vegetable and fish farming. The land has been leased for Rs 22,000 a year and the Maoists hope to start earning income from pig farming in six months.

Party secretary Dewan says that they took up farming because the party did not have a sustainable source of income. A local NGO helped the Maoists start commercial farming. A Janjagaran group has been formed among the conflict victims in the party and they are being supported to take up farming. Vice chairman of the group, Lal Bahadur Tamang, says that improved breeds of pigs will soon be made available to poor farmers.

The party needs about Rs 200,000 every month for the living expenses of its activists, says Dibya Baral, member of the party's district secretariat. An additional Rs 150,000 is needed every month for the treatment of some three dozen Maoist activists who were injured during the war.

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