Rains, floods damage paddy crops

By Our Correspondent

Nepalgunj, Oct. 10: Due to the continuous rains for the last four days, there has been a lot of damage to crops due to floods, inundation and erosion in various rivers, including Rapti River.

According to Nepalgunj Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Nepalgunj, the floods caused by incessant rains have destroyed the rice planted in most of the fields around the Rapti River and caused great damage to mustard and other crops and vegetable cultivation.

Sagar Dhakal, chief of Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Nepalgunj, said that since it was not possible to collect the exact details of the damage by Saturday due to Dashain holiday, there are reports of heavy damage to paddy and other crops from different places of the district.

He said that information is coming that the most damage has occurred in paddy cultivation in Rapti Sonari, Duduwa and Narainapur. The floods in Rapti River and Duduwa River in those municipalities have damaged most of the paddy field.

In Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality-9 at Khaireni, rains completely damage harvested paddy in about 1 kattha of Ghajadhar Tharu and about 3 katthas of paddy field of Poksari Dangi.

Similarly, due to the floods in Chukenala, the paddy crop of many farmers, including Motilal Dangi, Kasiram Upadhyay, Prem Dangi, Deumaya B.K., Mohanlal Dangi, Jhupsingh Dangi, Harilal Tharu and Ram Bahadur Wali, ready for harvesting has been damaged.

Dhakal said that as soon as the office opened on Sunday, staffers have been assigned to collect the damage and details have been requested from the agriculture branch in the municipality.

According to the Centre, the rice that is about to ripen, the rice that has been cut and the rice that has been planted late has also been damaged.

At the same time, Tapta Paudel, chairman of the Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality, said that in many places of Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality, there was more damage in paddy due to the flood.

He said that he had instructed employees to get the details of the damage and said that it is estimated that more than 200 hectares of rice farm has been destroyed.