Paddy plantation begins in Jajarkot

By Our Correspondent,Jajarkot, July 5: Farmers here have been busy in planting paddy. As the water springs and rivers dried up due to the long drought, the fields that used to be planted in the month of Jestha are now ready to plant paddy in the middle of Asar this year.

Farmers have started planting after it rained a few days ago. 

Planting has been delayed in lack of sufficient water in the river due to drought. 

Even though the planting was done yesterday and today, due to lack of water, they have not been able to plant in time. 

Farmers who are facing problems for not getting fertiliser on time have not been able to plant on time because the weather did not support them during the paddy plantation period.

Pashupati Jaise of Shivalaya Rural Municipality-3 said that paddy plantation had just started by first week of July this year while the paddy plantation had been completed by this time in past years.

Planting could not be done due to lack of rain in time this year, he said. 

Farmers who are worried that they would have to keep their fields barren in absence of rains, have started planting after rains.

The total cultivable land in seven municipalities of Jajarkot district is 11 per cent. Out of this 65 per cent are cultivated and the remaining 35 per cent of arable land is barren. 

It is found that paddy plantation has been completed in about 75 per cent of the fields so far.

According to Mahesh Acharya, chief of Agricultural Development Office, Jajarkot, farmers who are worried for not being able to plant paddy due to long drought are enjoying cultivation from morning till evening. 

The paddy plantation is going on in full swing, he said, adding that paddy plantation would complete within a week.

Ease in planting paddy after concrete canal built

According to our Dadeldhura correspondent, there was ease in paddy plantation in Parshuram Municipality-5 of the district after the concrete irrigation canal has been constructed.

Bishna Devi Bhattarai, a resident of Parshuram Municipality 5, Parigaon, said that it was easier for the farmers to plant paddy this year than last year after the canal was constructed this year.

The concrete canal has been constructed in Parigaon on the banks of Kali River with the cost of Rs. 6.4 million this year.

Ramrath Kharel, chief of the Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, said that a 1,560-metre-long canal was constructed with the budget of the Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, Dadeldhura. 

He said that although there were 104 projects for the construction of irrigation canal in the current fiscal year, only 75 projects had been completed so far.

Sakramdutt Bhattarai, a local, said that they faced problem to plant paddy in time till last year as they had to repair temporary canal yearly. 

He said that now that the concrete canal is made, the compulsion to dig the cannel has ended with ease in paddy plantation.

There are three large farming areas in Parigaon. About two hundred families here have more than two hundred bighas of land in the area. 

Tekraj Bhattarai, chairman of Ghatee Canal Irrigation Project Users’ Committee, said that a concrete canal had been constructed to plant the fields in this area.