58 per cent paddy plantation completed in Banke

By Our Correspondent,Nepalgunj, July 13: Paddy plantation has been completed in 58 per cent of the total paddy fields in Banke as of Friday. 

Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Banke, has reported that only 58.25 per cent planting has been completed so far due to lack of rainfall this week.

Khadak Basnet, Agricultural Technical Officer of the Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Banke said that if there had been continuous rainfall this week, it was estimated that more than 70 per cent planting would have been completed, but due to lack of rainfall, not much plantation has been completed.

According to him, the plantation done in the district so far has been mostly in the areas along the canal and branch canal of the Sikta Irrigation Project and various other canals and areas with irrigation facilities.

Due to lack of rains, only 11 per cent of plantation was completed in Banke till June 29. After continuous rains for a few days last week, 44.6 per cent of paddy plantation was completed by last Friday. However, since then, due to the lack of water, more paddy plantation has not been possible.

According to the Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Nepalgunj, due to the Sikta Irrigation Project, the highest rice planting has been done in Rapti Sonari, Kohalpur and Baijnath, while the lowest rice planting has been done in Janaki Rural Municipality.

As most areas of Banke are still forced to cultivate rice based on rain, the paddy plantation activities depend on monsoon rains. There is a total of 36,500 hectares of cultivable land for paddy plantation in Banke. 

Last year, the same area was cultivated in the fields. 

Similarly, according to our Bajura correspondent, paddy plantation in Bajura, where it began in the second week of Jestha, is 75 per cent so far.

The Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Bajura said that 75 per cent of rice has been planted in all nine local levels by Friday.

Rice planting started in the second week of Jestha on the riverside  land, and in places where there is no irrigation, rice is sown until the second week of Shrawan, said Khamma Sarki, a local farmer from Budhiganga Municipality.

He said, “Most of the land here does not have irrigation facilities. Although rice planting is done in the riverside land in Jestha itself, in places where there is no irrigation facility, planting is done in the second week of Shrawan with the help of rainwater.”

There is 27,160 hectares of land in Bajura. Out of this, only 7,303 hectares of land in Bajura is used for paddy plantation.