The mounds of stones and mud piled up by the flood looked like small mountains, the mounds are being moved by dozers, are being leveled by tractors, roots and stones are being removed, and some places are preparing to plant potatoes.
The farm in Bethanchok Rural Municipality-3 in Patne Kholachheu Phant was completely barren till a month ago. There were mounds of stones and mud piled up by the flood, looking like small hills. But now the bug is slowly forming. Farmers are found everywhere. The rock-soil mounds are being removed using dozers.
Some are using tractors on the abandoned fields, some are removing the roots and stones that have come out after using the tractor. Some farmers are making dang and planting potatoes. There is a river across the farm. I don't know when it will come. It is impossible to predict when crops will be damaged. Bethanchok - Indralal Shrestha of 3 Sanale used to worry every year whether the flood would cause damage. Without saying
, the flood that came in the second week of October destroyed the corn and vegetables he planted. "Where is the crop, where is the farmland, some names are still missing, I didn't think about it," he said. He could not bring in any of the vegetables and grain planted in 10 plantations. He estimated that around 4 lakhs were damaged by potatoes, corn and vegetables. "There is no knowledge other than agriculture, there is no other skill to work," he said, "Now there will be no food if the place that was not damaged by the flood is not repaired. We have started to build the fields that were left by ourselves." He has been busy building fields for the past week.
No one else will come and repair the field damaged by the flood. We will do it as much as we can," he said, "I used a dozer for 18 hours after paying 6,000 rupees an hour, I also used a tipper for 3 days after paying 15,000 rupees a day, and I have spent about 1.5 million rupees to build the farm. I am building a farm that was destroyed by the flood by taking loans.
After building the farm, he is ready to plant vegetables such as potato, cabbage, radish and coriander. "If there is a good income, the loan should be paid with the money saved from it," he said.
Landslides with stones and mud from about 300 meters above and floods with mud from the river flowing about 7/8 feet above made the cultivated land like a small hill. Local farmer Uddhav Prasad Ghimire was worried about how to get a source of income after the flood damaged the fertile farmland.
He used to grow vegetables such as potato, coriander, radish and other vegetables in that field and was earning 4/5 lakh rupees annually. After the flood damaged the agricultural land, he is struggling to make a living, so he is going to build a farm by himself.
'We had to make a living, we didn't sit like this all the time, we didn't sit watching the way of others,' he said. According to him, there is concern that vegetables will not grow as before. He said that because the soil here was fertile, it grew well.
'The field was damaged by the flood, it has been fixed by using a dozer, but the more stones are found, the more stones are removed, there is concern that the flood has damaged the soil here.' She has also started repairing the farm for a month. After the floods damaged the crops and fields, she started repairing them. She said that she has been making a living from vegetable farming for years and since she had no other source of income, she started repairing. "If you repair and plant vegetables now, you can get income after 3/4 months," she said Bhagwan Adhikari, chairman of the rural municipality, said that agricultural land has been damaged in various places of Bethanchok rural municipality. According to him, the rural municipality decided to organize a program for food security after the flood caused damage to the agricultural land through the village assembly. According to him, the demarcation of Patne river, Durlung river, Salandu river and the demarcation of the land of individuals are being prepared. He said that there is coordination and cooperation with Napi and Malpot office for this work.
Bethanchok municipality, which is self-sufficient in agriculture and livestock, was exporting 5 to 6 thousand kg of vegetables and 22 thousand liters of milk daily before the disaster, according to the agriculture and animal husbandry branch of the municipality. According to the branch, only about 2,000 vegetables and 18,000 liters of milk are being exported after the disaster. There are about 4,200 farmers households across the municipality, and 1,926 farmers have been affected by the disaster. Out of the municipality's total arable land of 3344 hectares, 900 hectares have been damaged, the branch said. Ward No. 2, 3 and 4 of the municipality have suffered a lot of damage.
