Farmers are worried about having to bear losses after continuous unseasonal rains caused paddy that was ready to be imported to be submerged in the fields.
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Avadkishore Mahato of Bardibas-12, Mahottari, supports his family of 11 through farming on rented land.
The rice planted in the 2 bigha field that he rented for 75,000 rupees annually is yet to be brought in. ‘I planted it a month late due to lack of rain.’ He said, ‘The rice that I had grown with painstaking efforts was ruined by the water.’
When it started raining while the rice was being cut and kept for drying, he has stored the wet rice in an empty space some distance from the field, covered with tarpaulins and sacks. Some high places where the rice is stored are also filled with rainwater. He is struggling to save the rice as water has accumulated around the rice pile and formed a pond. He is worried that the rice of about 1 bigha that he harvested at once will now sprout in the field. ‘I have not slept for three days, I am afraid that all the rice will rot,’ he said. Mahato, who has been producing 200 quintals of rice annually, planted the field in Shrawan this year after a drought. On the one hand, there is concern that the rice will not grow well due to late planting, and on the other hand, there is a lot of problem due to the rain that fell at the time of rice harvesting, Mahato said.
Nainikumari of Aurahi Municipality-1 has not been able to harvest the rice from the 10 kattha field she has cultivated since it rained. Since half of the rice produced is her share in the rice field, she is now looking at the sky and hoping that the rain will stop.
The drought that hit Madhesh during the middle of the rainy season had even led to the distribution of drinking water in various parts of the province through fire engines. When the monsoon was inactive during the rainy season, the government had declared Madhesh a drought-hit area in the middle of the rainy season. Farmers in the Terai, where sowing could be completed by the end of Asard, had not been able to sow paddy even after Asard passed. Farmers who suffered from drought during paddy sowing have suffered from unseasonal rains while storing paddy.
According to the Department of Water and Meteorology, the monsoon left Nepal on Asod 24, 8 days later than average. Less than a month after the monsoon left, it is raining across the country, giving a hint of rain.
In Mahottari alone, about a quarter of the land suitable for paddy cultivation was not sown in paddy fields this year due to drought. According to the Krishi Gyan Kendra, paddy was sown in only 30,137 hectares of land in Mahottari this year. This is one quarter less than in previous years. This year, rice has been sown in only 75.35 percent of the district's rice-cultivated area, said Devananda Raya Yadav, head of the Knowledge Center Mahottari.
Of the nearly 70,000 hectares of cultivable land in Mahottari, only about 34,000 hectares have irrigation facilities. Due to the compulsion to rely on sky-water on 36,000 hectares of land, rice planting had decreased due to lack of rain at the time of planting. During the rice planting season, due to drought in Ashar/Shrawan, farmers were unable to plant rice on time due to lack of irrigation, said Yadav, head of the Knowledge Center.
Avad Kishore, who has been farming for 40 years, says that in recent years, there has been no rain during planting and rain during tending. Mahato said that if the rice, which is sold for around Rs 4,000 per quintal, is not stopped from being watered, he is starting to worry that he will not even have enough to eat for his own family. ‘I don’t know how much rice will be imported this year,’ he said, ‘I haven’t harvested any, it is difficult to protect the harvested rice from the water.’
