Threshing machine growing popular among Sindhuli farmers

 By Our Correspondent

Sindhulimadi, Nov. 11: As there is a shortage of agricultural workers in the villages, the threshing machine is becoming popular among the farmers in Sindhuli district lately.

The farmers of Sindhuli district, who had been traditionally harvesting paddy with the help of workers, have recently been attracted to modern thresher machines.

Farmers have said that it is difficult to find workers and even if they are found, they are expensive and take much time, so they have started using thresher machines to harvest paddy.

Krishna Bahadur Lamichhane, a farmer of Kamalamai Municipality-4, said that the modern thresher machine can thresh paddy in less time and cost, so the farmers have started to use the machine to harvest the paddy in the district.

He said, “This machine was used only in large fields until some time ago. Now it is being used even in small area where there is a way for the tractor."

Lamichhane said that he used the paddy thresher machine in a field of about one bigha of land and threshed about 40 muris of paddy in less than two hours.

While the country is heading towards elections of the House of Representatives and the Provincial Assemblies, the farmers are busy harvesting and threshing the rice because the rice has ripened in the district.

Local residents have said that in some places, the farmers are threshing paddy traditionally by using workers. The use of modern thresher machines has started to increase after it became difficult to find workers.

Thanraj Adhikari, a resident of Dudhauli Municipality-1, said, "The thresher machine has made the farmers very relieved at a time when there is a lack of workers."

He said that more than 80 per cent of the farmers in Kamalakhunj area use thresher machines because it is easy to work.

Similarly, most of the farmers in Dudhauli and Kamalamai municipalities have also started using thresher machines. Farmers are paying up to Rs. 3,000 per hour for the use of threshers.

Bharat Thapamagar, a resident of Kamalamai Municipality-4, Chaukot, said that he bought a thresher machine four years ago at a cost of Rs. 300,000.

He said, "After Tihar, I haven't had a single day of free time from morning to evening. I have been threshing paddy for Rs. 3,000 an hour."

According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, paddy has been cultivated in nearly 15,425 hectares of land in the district this year and it is estimated that 49,360 tonnes will be produced.

Information officer of the Centre Sri Krishna Adhikari informed that weather has been favourable since planting paddy this year and the rice production is expected to increase due to the reduction of diseases.

According to the Centre, out of the total land of the district, the area covered with paddy cultivation is 22,394 hectares.