Schools in rural Nepal have been left deserted as villagers scramble to harvest a rare high-altitude fungus said to boost sexual performance.

The reported aphrodisiac properties of Yarchagumba are so potent the fungus has been dubbed ‘Himalayan Viagra’, and demand in China and other Asian markets is such that it can fetch the equivalent of up to $20,000 per kilo.

Education officials in Jajarkot district – where around 8,000 students have joined the annual rush to hunt for the fungus in meadows high in the Himalayas – said there was ‘no point’ in keeping schools open.

Parents and teachers are also among those flocking to high meadows in search of the fungus.

‘In this district alone, about 8,000 students have left school for the expedition,’ Prakash Subedi, from the Jajarkot district eduction office, said in a report on ninemsn.com.

‘Without the students, there’s no point running the school so we close them. Even the teachers go to collect it,’ he said.

Mr Subedi added that extra classes were held during the autumn at some schools to make up for the time students miss during the spring tmie Yarchagumba harvest.

Although parents are urged not to take children with them when they go in pursuit of the rare fungus, schools’ pleas tend to fall on deaf ears because children can earn as much as 100,000 rupees – the equivalent of over $1,000 – during the harvest, Mr Subedi said.

The word Yarchagumba means ‘summer grass, winter worm’ in Tibetan.

While no research has been published on its aphrodisiac properties, Chinese herbalists believe Yarchagumba can enhance sexual performance.

The fungus is boiled in water to make tea or added to soups or stews, and is also reputed to cure a host of ailments.