Paddy plantation festival to be held in Pokhara on Saturday

By Phadindra Adhikari,Pokhara, June 27: Pokhara Tourism Council is all set to host a National Paddy Plantation Day celebration on June 29 (Asar 15) with various programmes in Pokhara Metropolitan City.

Programmes including a paddy plantation festival will be organised in different paddy fields spreading over 464 square kilometres of the metropolis.

Every year, people across Nepal mark the National Paddy Day on Asar 15  by planting paddy and enjoying yoghurt and beaten rice.

The Pokhara Tourism Council, which has been continuously organising the rice planting festival for 19 years, will host this year’s festival at Margi, near the Phewa Lake, in  Pokhara-23.

The promoters of the festival include the Gandaki Province Government, Nepal Tourism Board, and Pokhara Metropolitan City. The Council during a press conference on Wednesday announced that preparations for the festival have reached the final stages.

For the rice planting festival, a main organising committee with 45 members, 15 sub-committees, and a 14-member advisory committee have been formed, informed General Secretary Sanjay Kant Sigdel. He said that the festival, which initially started to attract tourists during the off-season, has now become a unique identity of Pokhara.

Council Chairman Pom Narayan Shrestha said that the festival is organised to preserve the arable land around Pokhara and motivate farmers towards agriculture.

“We believe one should step into the mud once a year,” he said adding, “We have organised the festival to establish Pokhara as an all-season destination while maintaining tradition.”

The Jethobudo rice grown in the fields of Pokhara is popular in the area. Due to urbanisation, the arable land in the areas such as Biruwa Phant, Kundahar Phant, Bachhebaduwa, Sedibagar, Phewa Phant, Armala Phant, Mahtagauda, Lamachaur, Lekhnath, Kahukhola, and Pamephat is decreasing.

The organisers expect the festival to contribute to the promotion of both domestic and international tourism in the tourism capital Pokhara and Gandaki Province.

The festival will feature races of oxen pairs in the muddy paddy fields, Asare songs and rice planting competitions, and a competition for catching fish in the mud.

There will also be races and tug-of-war competitions for both domestic and foreign participants, as well as a race among journalists. Artists like Samiksha Adhikari, Prajapati Parajuli, Nirjala Gurung and Balkashi Gurung will perform at the festival.

On the occasion of plantation day, a programme with students will be held at Mahatagauda in Pokhara-17. Agricultural networks will organise programmes in each ward.