Sital Thopa Sichai Prabidhi Udyog (STU) is a private sector industrial venture which has been manufacturing, assembling and marketing low-Cost Drip and Micro-Sprinkle Irrigation Technologies for the past several years. These technologies are designed for the efficient use of water resource for increased productivity and income of small farmers. The low cost drip irrigation system produced by STU is simplified version of the high cost conventional drip irrigation popular in advanced countries’. The main simplified features are low-operating head, simple drippers & fittings, small size and divisible systems. The operating head is just 1 meter. The system can be run even by filing the header tank manually. STU and its partners manufacture and assemble all parts of the system. STU also provides a pre-assembled micro sprinkler -irrigation technology for irrigate ng vegetable crops up to 500 square metres. The package includes all necessary components such as pipes, filter, fittings, stand etc. Drip and micro-sprinklers systems produced and assembled by this enterprise have been branded as Sital Drip Irrigation and Sital Micro-sprinkler Irrigation System.
Sital Thopa Prabidhi Udyog is registered with Cottage and Small Industry Office, Lalitpur under the Cottage and Small Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry. Though it was registered in 2066 BS (2006) its activity dates back to 2055/56 BS (1996) when its predecessor Thapa Mould and Die started producing low-cost micro irrigation system with the technical support of IDE International. The founder of this enterprise is highly experienced die maker, Chandra Bahadur Thapa Chhetri, who has already worked as Die Maker at Reliable Engineering, Delhi-India for 4 years, as Supervisor at Tanu Plastics, Delhi-India and as Die Specialist at Spirub Engineering,Gwarko-Lalitpur, for 3years. Mr. Thapa is also Founder Director of Thapa Mould & Die, Gwarko-Lalitpur and New Neha Enterprises, Koteshwor, Kathmandu which is registered with the Department of Commerce for the purpose of exporting micro irrigation devices and agro products and importing hardware machinery, electric goods and plastic products.
Under Mr. Thapa’s competent stewardship, STU has deployed skilled technicians in manufacturing drip and micro-sprinkler irrigation pipes, pipe fittings and accessories. Drip irrigation products include 14 mm mainline, 12 mm sub-main and 8 mm lateral pipes which supply water from the control head into the fields. Other drip products are pipe fittings such as dripper/baffle s, in-plug, gate valve, label pipe, filters; stake (Khutti), L, Tee (a three-way joint used in fitting pipes together), connector, Tap, filters and fertilizer appliance. The life span of these products is minimum five years .PVC and HDPE are the main raw materials used in production. The average discharge of dripper is 2.25 litre/ hour.
Sital Thopa Prabidhi Udyog, with the technical expertise of its founder makes constant innovations with dies, machines and equipments on its factory shop floor. It uses not simply hand –moulding, but also semi-automatic and fully automatic machines to manufacture low-cost micro-irrigation components.
Sital Thopa Sichai Udyog (STU) works in close coordination and collaboration with Thapa Mould and Die (which manufactures industrial Moulds and Dies) and New Neha Enterprise through which it exports micro irrigation equipments and accessories.
STU has so far supplied its technologies to seventy two districts of Nepal. It hopes to extend its network to the remaining three districts: Darchula, Humla and Mugu in the near future. It has been currently selling approximately 6,000 drip systems and 1,500 sprinkler systems in a year. It maintains a yearly stock of 7,500 micro irrigation systems to ensure uninterrupted supply.
STU has also started exporting its technologies to foreign countries. Every year it exports to Sikkim 200 micro-irrigation systems sans head tanks. Several systems have been exported to Bangladesh , Bhutan , Pakistan ,Vietnam, Indonesia, China , Japan , Kazakhstan, Russia, and African countries ( Burkina Fatso, Ethiopia and Ghana ) Some samples of its technologies have been supplied to Germany Canada, USA and Israel as well.
Sital Thopa Prabidhi Udyog has collaborated with INGOs/NGOs and District Agriculture development offices and other government agencies as well as different agriculture farms and farmers’ groups in addition to its dealers for scaling up production, marketing and use of micro-irrigation technologies throughout Nepal. Currently, more than 60 thousand farmers are using drip and micro-sprinkler irrigation technologies in the country.
Sital Thopa Sichai Prabidhi Udyog has been supplying drip and micro-sprinkler devices and other technologies directly and through 35 dealers in different districts of Nepal including three Terai districts Kailali, Banke and Chitwan. There are three dealers in Pokhara and two dealers each in Dang, Chitwan, Kailali , Surkhet, Salyan and Dadeldhura districts. It is planning to extend the current network of its dealers in 28 districts to other districts as well.
STU has also been supplying plastic sheets of 120 GSM, 90 GSM, 70 GSM of size 5 x 12 mtr, 6 x 12 mtr for plastic tunnel and plastic sheets of 150 GSM, 200 GSM, and 250 GSM for plastic ponds. Standard size of Sital micro irrigation system is designed to fit in the plastic house for the commercially grown cash crops including tomato, cauliflower and cucumber. .We are providing Plastic sheets to farmers for simple greenhouse plastic tunnels to manipulate environmental conditions for growing off-season vegetables using different sizes of drip and micro sprinkler irrigation technologies. The soil is covered with plastic sheets to increase temperature, retain moisture, promote seed germination and emergence and accelerate the growth and development of roots and the whole plant. Plastic tunnels enable farmers to advance and shorten the growing season of many crops.
In addition to micro irrigation equipment, STU has also been manufacturing and marketing low-cost colloid silver treated Drinking water filter. The filter yields enough drinking water for a family of five or six through two fillings of the bucket a day and has been successfully field-tested in Nepal.