Sarlahi farmers planting paddy after latest rainfall

By Our Correspondent,Sarlahi, Aug. 10: After having enough rainfall from Monday, farmers in Sarlahi, who were unable to plant paddy in the absence of an irrigation facility, are now busy planting paddy.

Farmers have said that planting has already been done in the areas that receive water from canals and wells, but now that there is enough rain in the areas with no irrigation facility, they are now busy with the planting. Birendra Chaudhary, a farmer of Lalbandi Municipality-3, Jabdi, said that relief was felt after the rains. However, paddy plantation used to concluded by the first week of August. Chaudhary said that when there is enough water and when everyone is planting at the same time, it is difficult to find workers to prepare the field, pluck the seedlings and plant the paddy. 

Farmers here have not even got tractors easily to plough the fields and they have to work during the night in order to get a tractor since many of them are using a few machines. 

Uddhab Prasad Timalsina, a farmer of Ishwarpur Municipality-12, Kalinjor, said that farmers in his area have to depend on rains to plant paddy as there is no irrigation facility. 

Farmers in Lalbandi, Hariawn and Ishwarpur municipalities in the northern part of the district and Haripurwa Municipality and Chandranagar, Brahmapuri and Parsa rural municipalities in the eastern part, where there is no irrigation facility, are very happy after the rain.

Even the farmers who have already planted their crops have been relieved by the rain. As there was no rain, the seedlings that had been planted had started to dry up. 

Agriculture Knowldege Centre Malangwa, Sarlahi has reported that there has been progress in planting as it has been raining since Monday night.

In Sarlahi, paddy is cultivated in 46,500 hectares of land. The head of the Centre, Devanand Rai, informed that paddy has been planted in more than 80 per cent of the fields and the rest of the fields are also being planted rapidly after the recent downpour.