Milking it for all it’s worth

Gokarna Bastola never went to school, did not know how to read or write, and followed his parent’s footsteps to become a dairy farmer in Pharping, 20km south of Kathmandu.

The family made a decent living selling milk, but was not well-to-do. The fact that there was only a rough road to the capital meant that milk could not easily be taken to the Kathmandu market. 

Which is why the young Gokarna hit upon the idea of turning the milk into khuwa, a traditional sweetened concentrated solid milk product that would not spoil. Since he was the only dairy farmer in the area who was making khuwa, business just took off. 

The Kali Khuwa Udyog started in Pharping 40 years ago with an initial investment of only Rs255. Today, it is a thriving industry and it has made  Gokarna Bastola a prosperous man able to afford top education for all his four children, who are now based around the world.  

“The milk would not keep, so we preserved it as khuwa, I never thought it would be such a big business one day,” Bastola reflects.

In the early days, customers were limited to pilgrims who thronged to Dakshinkali temple from Kathmandu and beyond. After their puja, families bought packets of the dairy product to take home. Word of its quality spread by word of mouth, and Bastola got many repeat customers.

It takes 300 litres of milk to make 15kg of khuwa which can sell for up to Rs1,000. Bastola’s shop also sells 200 litres of milk and endless cups of tea every day to pilgrims. 

After his initial investment, Kali Khuwa Udhyog expanded with a loan of just Rs2,000 from the Nepal Agricultural Development Bank. Business was slow in the beginning, and Bastola even had moments of doubt about whether it would work. 

But he bought 14 goats, six cows and two buffaloes, and started the business from his rented room. Slowly, by ensuring strict quality control of the product, business picked up and the dairy farm had to expand into a larger space.

“My measure of success is not the money I have made, but the hurdles I overcame, and the fact that my children are all well educated and doing well for themselves,” he says.

It has not been easy. At one point, Bastola toiled 18 hours a day tending to his livestock and farm. He tried other dairy products, but nothing sold as well as khuwa, so he stuck to it. 

Pharping is now a busy town after the highway to Hetauda started bringing more traffic. And Bastola shop now sells more dairy not just to pilgrims but also bus passengers.

Despite being a successful farmer, Bastola is a humble man because he remembers his humble beginnings. He also recognises that it is hard work, determination and a steadfast refusal to cut corners that made him successful. 

“The value of a person cannot just be measured in money, their worth comes from integrity and industriousness,” he says, reminding Nepali youth thinking of migrating abroad that prosperity is possible in Nepal itself.

The fact that the younger generation is moving away from the land worries him, especially the misconception that agriculture is for the poor and uneducated, when in fact livestock farming can lift Nepalis out of poverty. 

“Of course you will not do well if you are lazy, it is hard work that brings achievement and fulfilment, and a sense of having contributed to society,” he says.

With four decades of experience, Bastola has words of wisdom for everyone. He finds in milk a reflection of Nepal itself – the thicker it is the more honest society is, and when it is adulterated it means the community is morally bankrupt.  

Says Bastola: “What is today may not be there tomorrow, what there will be tomorrow may not yet exist. But we control our own destiny.”

Translated by Aria Parasai from the original in Himalkhabar.