It is estimated that rice production will be less this year. It is estimated that the rice production will decrease if the weather is not favorable at the time when the rice is ripe and brought in by the farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has informed that the heavy rains that fell in most parts of the country from October 10th to 12th have also affected the paddy cultivation. For the past few days, the weather has been favorable for paddy. The ministry has informed that due to light to moderate rains in various parts of the country, rice has been affected. 

Information Officer of the Ministry, Mahanand Joshi, informed that the rice production may decrease due to lack of climate adaptation during the importation of rice this year .

'Due to the floods and inundation last October, Madhes Province and  Wagmati province was affected the most, ripe crops were also washed away, in some places the harvested crops were destroyed by the flood,' he said, '57 thousand hectares of paddy fields have been damaged in Madhes province, the details of the actual damage are yet to come. In Sirha, Saptari, land has been cut and sand has been damaged due to the accumulation of sand, so we estimate that rice production will decrease by two percent.'

Dr. Mathura Yadav, coordinator of the National Rice Research Program, said that due to the heavy rains last October, rice production was affected in Koshi, Madhes and Wagmati provinces. "If the weather forecast reaches the farmers, they will know when to cut the rice or not and the damage will be reduced," he said. 

damage is being assessed

The ministry is going to hold a regional conference in the last week of December to make a detailed assessment of the damage caused to the rice fields due to the monsoon disaster . According to Joshi, the information officer of the ministry, a conference is going to be organized to get the exact data of the damage by including the data collected from all the provinces. He said that the representatives of the related ministries of all provinces will be present at the conference.

Monsoon was only favorable for planting 

This year the monsoon was favorable only for paddy planting. The ministry analyzed that most of the plantings are done under sky water and this year the monsoon is good for planting if it rains a lot this year. 

According to the ministry, 98.5 percent planting was completed. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, planting was completed at 94.6 percent last year, and this year, planting has increased by nearly four percent.

Rice planting has been completed in 13 lakh 78 thousand six hundred 11 hectares of rice planting area in the country. According to the ministry, 99.6 percent planting was completed in Koshi province. In Koshi province, there are about 276 thousand 386 hectares of planting area, so far 276 thousand 267 hectares of planting has been completed. 

Last year till August 7th, 97.7 percent of the planting was completed in Koshi province and 97.3 percent in Madhes province . This year, 99.2 percent planting in Wagmati province, 97.8 percent in Gandaki province, 98.3 percent in Lumbini province, 99.2 percent planting in Karnali province and 100 percent in Sudurpaschim province were completed.

About 5.7 million metric tons of rice was produced last year . Rice production is expected to increase by seven percent due to more planting this year . But due to bad weather at the time of importation, it is expected to decrease compared to last year . 

Mahanand Joshi, the information officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that there is a possibility that the production will decrease if the weather is not favorable during the importation of rice. "This year, the rice planting was good, the rain was also good for rice," he said, "therefore, the rice production was expected to increase by 7%, but due to lack of weather adaptation during the importation, now the production will decrease."

This year, due to the easy availability of chemical fertilizers and favorable monsoon for the farmers, planting increased by nearly four percent. Joshi informed that most of the places have to rely on sky water for planting and due to good rainfall, the planting was completed on time . "In most of the areas that have reached irrigation facilities, rice planting is done on time, otherwise we have to rely on the sky," he said.

More impact of rain

Not only last October, the rains that have fallen in the past few days have affected the paddy fields . According to the Weather Forecast Division under the Department of Water and Meteorology, light to moderate rain has been falling in most of the hilly parts of the country for the past few days. It seems to affect rice paddy (Nihin).

The weather will clear from Tuesday, according to Rojan Lamichhane, meteorologist of the

division, the rains that have been happening in various hilly areas of the country for the past few days will continue till tonight . "We will make a weather forecast for three days, the weather will be clear from Tuesday afternoon," he said, "there is no chance of rain for three days, it is not possible to predict what the situation will be like." According to him, currently there is a partial effect of western wind in Nepal.

imports may increase 

According to the ministry, up to the end of May of the financial year 2080/81, rice seeds worth Rs 886.5 million have been imported. Likewise, rice worth about 11 billion 55 million rupees has been imported. 

According to the ministry, rice worth eight billion and 69 million rupees has been imported during this period. Kanika worth about 9 lakh 20 thousand rupees has been imported. The ministry has estimated that this year's rice production will decrease and imports will also increase. 

This is the status of rice production

According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture, the total production of rice in the last financial year increased by 4.33 percent over the previous year and reached 57 lakh 24 thousand two hundred and 34 metric tons . Which is 5.08 percent more than the average production of the last four years .

The total area under paddy crop has decreased by 0.61 ie eight thousand eight hundred hectares compared to the year 2079/80 and has reached 14 lakh 38 thousand nine hundred and 89 hectares . This area is 1.73 percent less than the average area of ​​the previous four years. The average productivity of paddy has increased by 4.97 percent compared to last year and reached 3.98 metric tons per hectare, which is 6.92 percent higher than the average productivity of the last four years.

In the last season, the production of paddy was high in Koshi province while it was low in Karnali province . In the last season, Koshi province was in the lead with 4.43 metric tons per hectare, while Madhes province was limited to 3.49 metric tons per hectare and remained at the lowest position. As compared to the main paddy, the productivity of Chaite paddy has remained high as in the previous seasons .