560 families from Sanwabari, Mahang, Ripeni, Jimi, and Singdantol in Belhara have shown hope for its commercialization by cultivating rice even in dry, arid areas with no irrigation facilities.
What you should know
No ditches, no water, no mud. Still, a basket full of rice. Can rice be grown in dusty soil without mud, weeds, weeds, and weeds? Farmers in the drought-stricken Belahara village of Dhankuta have answered this question. That too by growing thousands of bushels of rice in paddy fields.
Shankar Roila of Roila Tol in Belhara village of Dhankuta does not have a field that can be irrigated. However, this year he has a lot of rice and straw in his garden. Shankar has planted one and a half kilos of paddy and grown 12 seedlings. The straw from that has become a great source of food for the cattle.
Last year, he bought a cart of straw for cows, buffaloes and bulls by paying 48 thousand rupees and is happy that he does not have to buy rice and straw this time. He says, ‘I planted it like I planted millet by putting seeds in the dust. As long as I looked after it from time to time, the yield was very good. The rains of Asoj damaged it a little, otherwise it would have been even more.’
He has decided to increase the seeds and area next year and plant paddy. Indra Rai of Jimitol does not have a field, but he has a garden, and that too on a hill. Rai, who always goes to the valleys and terai for the rice, straw and chaff he needs throughout the year, is confident this year. He has planted rice in the corn field and made 10 rows. There is straw all over the field. He has an experience that the rice sown in the corn field has grown better than expected.
He said that he sowed one kilo of seeds in the corn field. He says, ‘I sowed it in the corn field because everyone in the village is doing it. My other fields were empty, but the unending river washed it away. A lot of rice grew in the paddy field where monkeys fight.’ Narayan Shrestha of Thanichowk is among the largest paddy growers in Belahara.
Shrestha grew 24 rows of rice from three kilos of seeds this year. He said that there was more straw than a tractor. He was happy that a lot of rice grew with less effort. He said that the rice in the field has not been dug even once. ‘I did not have to dig deep, I cut the grass of the corn, and I did not suffer from water.’ He has an experience that insects that fly into the paddy field cause trouble.
560 families from Sanwabari, Mahang, Ripeni, Jimi and Singdantol in Belhara have shown hope for its commercialization by growing rice even in dry, dry conditions where there is no irrigation facility at all. Tanka Roila, ward chairman of Dhankuta 10, says that out of the 560 families that planted paddy, 3 to 24 muri of rice have grown.
says, ‘They grew from three to 24 muri.’ He calculated that even if each household produces 7 muri, there will be 3,920 muri of rice. Dhankuta Municipality has also mentioned this figure in its annual progress review on Kartik 30. Belhara village is in ward number 10 of Dhankuta Municipality. According to Roila, after seeing the good results of the trial production of paddy, the ward itself organized a program and encouraged 560 families here to cultivate by providing up to three kilos of seeds at a 50 percent subsidy.
Roila said that seeds were procured from outside in coordination with the local seed shop. Farmers had planted the seeds of Shankar and Upaj, a type of paddy brought from India, in this village. Drought-hit Belhara village has a drinking water problem. There is no source of water for irrigation anywhere. Farmers here used to make a living by producing tomatoes.
But tomato production is not what it used to be. Increased acidity in the soil and uncontrolled use of pesticides in tomato farming have led to a decline in production and quality. Ward Chairman Tanka Roila says that they are looking for an alternative to tomato farming as its effects on human and domestic animal health are starting to be seen. Not only Belhara, farmers from Chhathar Jorpati and Shahid Bhumi in Dhankuta have also been attracted to this type of paddy farming, which can be produced even on flat, dry and steep land without irrigation facilities.
Farmers are increasingly interested in this as good production has started even in places where irrigation water is not available and rice cultivation was considered impossible. This drought-tolerant rice can be planted in hilly and sloping fields in the month of Jestha and harvested by the end of Kartik.
Nagendra Rana, acting head of the Agricultural Knowledge Center, Dhankuta, said that this rice, which does not require regular irrigation, could be an alternative for drought-stricken areas. He informed that a program will be organized for the production of this rice in drought-stricken areas from next year.
