Of the 49 village development committees (VDCs) and three municipalities in the district, only 19 VDCs have access to irrigation facilities, according to District Agriculture Office. The rest, mostly in the district´s northern region, depend on rain or underground water for rice plantation.[break]
“Those who depend on rain water are yet to start planting rice saplings,” Rudra Phuyal, a technician at the district agriculture office, said.
The result is a double whammy for farmers, who had seen their arable lands turn into desert after the flood in the Koshi River, almost four years ago, breached its embankments and covered their fields with sand.
These problems have been further compounded by shortage of fertilizers, an essential input in paddy plantation.
Of the 81,944 hectares of arable land in Sunsari district, so far rice has been planted only in 54,091 hectares of land.
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