Desperate farmers cut paddy plants to feed cattle

By Our Correspondent, Bhairahawa, Aug. 23: Farmers of Rupandehi have started feeding the cattle by cutting the rice paddy after it dried up due to drought.

After the paddy crop started drying up in the field, the farmers started cutting the paddy crop out of desperation, citing that it can at least be used for feeding animals.

Earlier, in absence of timely rains, farmers bought fuel at high prices and planted paddy. Now the lack of rain has added more problems for the farmers who have been cultivating paddy due to lack of fertiliser and water.

It has not rained in the district for about a month. As a result, the planted paddy has started drying up in the field. Now the fields where there should be water are cracked due to lack of rain.

Not only the fields but also the ponds and lakes used by the farmers for irrigation have dried up now.

Even when trying to irrigate fields from underground boring using pump sets, water could not be retrieved. As there is no hope of water from anywhere, the farmers have become distressed.

Radha Koharang of Marchawari Rural Municipality-6 of Rupandehi said that now there is drought in Terai.

She said that due to the drought, the hope of rice production has been shattered and they started cutting paddy plants to feed the buffaloes.

"Weeds have grown in the fields with no rains, there is still no likelihood of rain," she said.  "The crops planted are not useful for us; at least we can feed the buffaloes."

Ram Naresh Koharang of Marchawari Rural Municipality said that due to the high cost of fuel, they could not irrigate water to the fields.

He said that the amount with him was spent on planting paddy and now it is difficult to manage the expenses of feeding and educating the children.

Farmers who do not have access to irrigated areas are mostly affected by the drought. Access to irrigation in Marchawari, Dhakdhai, Lumbini areas is low. Because of this, the farmers here depend on rain water to irrigate fields.

Farmers who were hit by heavy rains last year are forced to suffer even more this year as there is no rain.

Farmer Duniyapati Yadav has said that since there is no hope of rain and paddy, the district should be declared a drought-affected district and a relief package should be brought by the government.

"I appeal to the federal, province and local governments to declare drought-affected areas and distribute relief," said Yadav.

Yadav said that the local government should take initiative in this regard.

"The local government is a body that understands our problems sincerely, so now we should start protecting our people from this immediate problem," he said.

Due to lack of timely rains in Rupandehi, farmers planted paddy in only 90 per cent of the total paddy field this year.

There will be a decline in rice production in the district.

According to the data of Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Rupandehi, around 270,782 tonnes of paddy was produced in Rupandehi last year with a productivity rate of 4.2 tonnes per hectare.

There is a possibility of a decrease of 15 per cent this year as compared to last year due to shrinkage in the area of paddy plantation and present drought, said Anil Baniya, information officer of the Agricultural Knowledge Centre.

Paddy has been planted in around 58,337 hectares of land out of 82,622 hectares of total cultivable land in Rupandehi district this year. According to the Centre, only 57,989 hectares have irrigation facilities.