Due to the lack of rain since the second week of Jestha, farmers who have fields on the banks of the Sharda River are irrigating and planting rice in rotation. After the water level in the river has decreased sharply due to the lack of rain, farmers have been forced to irrigate their fields in rotation.  

There are about 3,000 hectares of rice fields from Bagchaur, the source of the Sharda River, to Damdwali in Kalimati Rural Municipality, where it merges with the Babai River.   Last year, more than 50 percent of the planting was completed by the second week of Asad, but this year, due to the lack of rain, only 25 percent of the planting has been completed.

After the situation arose that the little water in the river had to be taken from the canal and used for sowing in the fields, many farmers who had plowed and prepared their fields could not prepare for sowing, says Krishna Bista, a farmer from Marke, Sharada Municipality-8. He said that the farmers who had built a dam in the middle of the river by working hard for 10/12 days to bring water to the canal for sowing rice in the fields have now had to live in a situation where they have to wait for rain from the sky.

Even though the fields were plowed and prepared on Asad 15, it was their turn to water the fields for sowing after five days, Bista said. Although there is a field on the banks of the Sharada River in Sharada Municipality-15, there is not enough water in the river and they have to wait for many days when they do not get their turn.

‘I have a three-ropani field near the Sharada River. I have plowed and prepared everything.’ Since I could not water the fields continuously from the canal like in the past, I have started watering two ropanis and shaking them, one ropani is enough,' he said, 'Last year, the sowing was completed by the end of Jestha due to timely rains. This year, sowing has not been possible since the first week of Ashar has passed. It is enough to wait for the turn for irrigation. Other work has been affected as we have to wait for the turn for irrigation in the fields for many days.'

Even though there was a lot of rain in Baisakh, there has been no rain since Jestha till now due to the decrease in the water level in the river and the fields near the water source, others will not get their turn until the sowing is completed, said Punaram BK of Syalpani, Sharada Municipality-15.

He informed that when the turn came after four days of plowing and preparing the field for sowing, they finally started watering it from the canal and shaking it. ‘The paddy beds are ready.’ He said that they would finish sowing in one or two days and then start other work, but they had to worry about water,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Yagya Bahadur Roka, a farmer from Chhatreshwari Rural Municipality-6, said that due to the lack of rain, the water level in the river has decreased sharply and the canal has not been filled with water, so he has not been able to prepare for sowing.

He informed that not only his own field but also only a few of the fields on the banks of the Sharda, which are more than one hectare in area, have sown. "The relevant agencies have built canals for irrigation in the fields, but what can be done when there is no water in the river," he said. "There is a fear that the paddy fields will dry up."