Farmers of Baglung faces shortage of irrigation

75 percent of arable land void of irrigation

Baglung, Dec.10: Famers are in distress as their arable land is left barren due to a lack of irrigation facilities. 

Farmers who have been farming depending on rainy water for a long time are still to be self-reliant on food.  Though there is sufficient land mass, the lack of irrigation to their land has made farmers dependent. 

Every year millions of budgets are endorsed in agriculture of districts of lack of completion of projects timely has caused distress to farmers. 

88 projects have been approved by the Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, Baglung, in the current fiscal year.

According to the Information Officer of the Department of Water Resources and Irrigation (DWRI)  Jiban Adhikari, Rs 140 million has been allocated for 88 projects under Gandaki Province and the federal government. 

According to him, plans have been implemented in all 10 wards of the district. 

He said that only 30,999 hectares of land are being cultivated in a total of 46,148 hectares of cultivable land in the district. 

Of which, irrigation facilities have reached only 25.87 per cent of cultivable land. 

The official informed that 2,841 hectares of land is cultivable all around a year. 

Karna Bahadur Kauca of Galkota Municipality-11 of Baglung said that due to a lack of irrigation facilities, many arable lands have started turning into barren land.

Recalling that until a decade ago, irrigation was done by building a well from small streams in the village, he says that now that the spring has dried up, farming has stopped in many lands.

Tul Bahadur Khatri of Nisikhola Rural Municipality -1, Baglung, said that paddy production has decreased due to a lack of irrigation. 

He said that farmers are facing trouble because of a lack of enough irrigation and timely rainfall.

He said, "Even though there are enough places where rice can be grown in this area, it has not grown due to irrigation problems. Even after paddy plantation irrigation looks far stretched and has to rely on rainwater. Because of the lack of good irrigation even in cultivable land farmers have to rely on others. The concerned authorities need to solve the problem by giving relief to farmers."