Bardiya farmer facing fertiliser shortage

By Our Correspondent 

Bardiya, Oct. 26:  For many farmers in Bardiya, this year’s Tihar festival brought no celebrations, only long hours in the fields and queues for fertiliser. 

As Tihar arrived early this year and coincided with the harvest season, most farmers chose to focus on their fieldwork rather than the festivities.

After Dashain, farmers were busy harvesting paddy and preparing to plant mustard and wheat, but the shortage of chemical fertiliser turned their festive days into a struggle.

“I didn’t get any time to celebrate Tihar,” said Prabesh Yadav, a farmer from Gulariya Municipality–7, Chaugurji. “All my focus went into finding the fertilizer,” he added. 

Across Bardiya’s eight local levels, farmers have been visiting cooperatives in search of supplies. At Shanti Bazar in Geruwa Rural Municipality, the Shishir Small Farmers’ Cooperative had announced it would distribute Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser just before Tihar. 

As a result, farmers queued up overnight in the hope of getting some. “We had to spend Tihar standing in line for fertilizer, there was no festival at home this year,” said Salikram Chaudhary of Geruwa–3. 

Samser Chaudhary, a local of Ward-2 echoed the same frustration, saying, “It’s time to sow wheat and mustard after the paddy harvest, but without fertiliser, all we can do is wait.”

According to Naresh Chaudhary, an assistant at the cooperative, they require around 4,200 sacks each of urea and DAP fertiliser every year, but the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited has been supplying only about 40 per cent of the total demand.

The shortage has worsened farmers’ woes, who were already troubled by heavy rains during Dashain. For them, this year’s Tihar has not been a celebration but a symbol of hardship and uncertainty.