Farmers are worried after the rains hit just when they were preparing to bring in their rice crops, which were planted late due to drought and lack of rain. Some of the rice that had already been harvested is submerged in the fields. Farmers who suffered from drought during rice planting have been suffering from the unseasonal rains that have been falling since Monday, when they are storing their rice.

After the rains stopped on Saturday morning, farmers are struggling to dry their wet paddy and take care of their waterlogged paddy. 

Jayakrishna Dharala of Chandannath-8 Dharalbada expressed his grief, saying that the rains had ruined their hard work of six months in just three days. Due to the prolonged rains, the paddy fields had become like ponds by Friday. ‘The harvested paddy is soaking in the field. Neither the grain nor the straw seems to be useful,’ Mannu Pariyar expressed her concern.

Some farmers have covered the waterlogged paddy with tarpaulins. Some have taken the paddy home along with the stalks. Some have kept it in the field in a row. Some farmers, however, were rushing to cover the paddy they had cut and kept in the field after the rain started soaking the paddy and covering it with tarpaulins and sacks. The farmers complained that the problem was the place where the paddy was planted.

According to the District Agricultural Development Office, farmers in five out of eight local levels of Jumla had already brought in their paddy crop. Farmers in some wards of Tatopani and Hima rural municipalities and Chandannath municipality had not yet brought in their paddy. The agricultural office has stated that 20 percent of the paddy planted on a total of 2,890 hectares is wet in the field.

Farmers are worried that if the paddy does not dry out even for a week, the grain will sprout and the stalks and straw will rot in the field and be wasted. Kalimarsi, Lekali 1 and Lekali 3, Chandannath 1 and Chandannath 3 varieties of paddy are planted in Jumla.

Avadkishore Mahato of Bardibas-12 in Mahottari had been farming on rent for two bighas of land for Rs 75,000 annually. This time, he is also worried that the paddy that his family of 11 will eat for the year will be destroyed after it rained even before the paddy crop was brought in. ‘There was a delay of one month due to lack of rain during paddy sowing. Now the crop that was ready to be brought in has been ruined by the rain,’ he said. ‘I had harvested almost one bigha of paddy at once, now I am worried that it will grow in the field.’

Mahato said that he has not been able to sleep for three days due to worries that all the paddy will rot. He used to produce 200 quintals of paddy every year, but this year’s paddy was only able to be sown in Shrawan due to the drought. ‘On the one hand, there was a concern that the paddy would not grow well due to late sowing, on the other hand, there was no rain during the paddy bringing in,’ Mahato said. 

Nainikumari of Aurahi Municipality-1 has also been hit by the rain when she harvested 10 kattas of paddy from the field she earned in Adiyaan. She used to earn half of the production by paying the paddy to the farmer and the other half that falls to her share to make ends meet. She is now looking at the sky and hoping that the rain will stop.

Due to the drought in Madhesh during the mid-barkha period, drinking water was also distributed by fire engines in various parts of the province. When the monsoon failed in the mid-barkha period itself, the government had declared Madhesh a drought-affected area. Even after Ashar had passed in the Terai, farmers had not been able to sow rice. 

According to the Department of Water and Meteorology, the monsoon left Nepal on 24 Ashoja, eight days later than average. Less than a month after the monsoon left, it rained across the country, giving a glimpse of rain. In Mahottari alone, about a quarter of the rice cultivable land could not be sown in the fields this year due to drought. According to the Krishi Gyan Kendra, only 30,137 hectares of land were sown in Mahottari this year. Which is one quarter less than last year. 

Devananda Raya Yadav, head of the Gyan Kendra Mahottari, informed that rice was sown in only 75.35 percent of the rice cultivation area of ​​the district this year. 

In Mahottari, which has about 70,000 hectares of cultivable land, only about 34,000 hectares have irrigation facilities. Due to the compulsion to rely on rainwater on 36,000 hectares of land, the planting of rice had decreased due to lack of rain during the planting season. Yadav, the head of the knowledge center, said that farmers were not able to plant rice on time due to lack of irrigation after the drought in Asar-Shrawan caused a shortage of drinking water. 

Avadkishore, who has been farming for 40 years, says that in recent years, there has been no rain during planting and rain during tending has been damaging it. Mahato said that he is starting to worry that if the water is not stopped, the rice, which is sold for about Rs 4,000 per quintal, will not be enough to eat for his family. ‘I don’t know how much rice can be imported this year,’ he added, ‘Some of the rice has not been harvested, and it is difficult to protect the harvested rice from the water.’ 

Nihin drowned in the field 

Ramechhap farmers are worried that months of hard work will be wasted due to continuous rain. This year, paddy ripening in Ramechhap had started since the first week of Kartik. Even though the weather started to deteriorate from Monday, many farmers had harvested paddy in a hurry and spread it out to dry in the fields, but the continuous rain that started from Wednesday has soaked everything. 

Gopal Majhi of Kunauri, Manthali Municipality-6, said that although the paddy grew well this time, he had to bear the loss due to rain during storage. ‘All the hard work has been wasted due to unseasonal rain while storing the paddy,’ Majhi said, ‘This year, the paddy grew well in the Bagar fields of Bokse and Kunauri. The rice in the box field had already been stored, but the rains in the bagar field have completely submerged it since the day it was cut.'

Suraj Shrestha of Manthali Municipality-7 said that the harvested rice has been submerged in water due to continuous rain for four days. He said, 'We did not even imagine that it would rain at this time. The rain has not stopped for four days.' He said that not only the rice fields were submerged, but the rain has also washed away the rice that was yet to be cut. 

Yovan Kumar Sunuwar, assistant agricultural economist at the Manthali Municipality Agricultural Development Sub-Branch, said that the current unseasonal rains have created problems for farmers who are in a hurry to harvest their main crop, rice. 'Farmers who regularly follow weather information were able to save their rice,' he added, 'but the rice of farmers who did not receive the information has been damaged by the rain.'

According to the Agricultural Development Office, Ramechhap, there are 7,859 hectares of rice fields in two municipalities and six rural municipalities in the district. This year, more than 7,200 hectares of land were sown. According to the Agricultural Development Office, about 20,150 metric tons of rice were produced in Ramechhap last year.

Farmers in Salyan are also under stress after the rice that was cut and stored got wet in the fields. Farmers are struggling to dry the rice that got wet in the rain. Of the approximately 7,000 hectares of rice produced in Salyan, half of it was yet to be brought in. Even now, the ripe rice in the fields around the banks of the Sharda River, Bagchaur, Bangad Kupinde Municipality, Triveni, Kalimati, Siddhakumakh, Kumakh, and Khaharekhola of Darma Rural Municipality is still wet after being cut and dried.

Deepak Bhandari of Kalimati Rural Municipality said that the rain got wet in the fields when he was trying to bring in the rice in his free time after celebrating Tihar. In areas like Totke, Chapi, Chankheli, Syanku Jiula, Simalchowk, Dhorni and other areas of Kalimati, the rice that has been cut and dried is not only wet, but also submerged in the fields in some places. 

Bhim Bahadur Nepali of Sharada Municipality-9 said that after the cut and dried rice was soaked in the field for 24 hours, it is now difficult to dry it. He said, "Today, they use machines to thresh the rice. We were also waiting for the machine. But before the machine could be brought, it rained, so we could not bring it in."

Mahesh Acharya, head of the Agricultural Development Office, Salyan, said that late-ripening rice in non-irrigated fields will not be damaged much even if it gets wet. He says that since many farmers are planting hybrid rice, it will not be affected by a day's rain. 28,000 metric tons of rice is produced from 7,000 hectares of Salyan.

In Kapilvastu, only 25 percent of the paddy was harvested in 62,907 hectares of fields this year, said Krishi Gyan Kendra Chief Ghanshyam Chaudhary. Although most of the paddy in the northern region has been harvested, most of the paddy in the southern region has yet to be harvested due to rain. Chaudhary said that the rain has damaged the paddy that was cut and left in the field and the paddy that fell and sank in the field. 

According to the agriculture branches of various local levels in the district, the current rain will also affect the overall paddy production. Ramsurat Pal, Information Officer of the Krishi Gyan Kendra, said that the rain has damaged the fast-maturing varieties of Gorakhnath, Radha 4 and 6. He said that details are being collected in coordination with the municipality about the damage to the paddy crop.