Farmers still facing a shortage of chemical fertilizers 

KATHMANDU, July 23: Paddy transplantation has been completed on 91.68 percent of the country's rice fields as of Wednesday, thanks to the timely and adequate rainfall the country receives this time and the easy availability of manpower in the agriculture fields due to the lockdown and coronavirus.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, farmers transplanted paddy saplings on 1.25 million hectares of land out of the paddy acreage of 1.37 million hectares. By this time last year, paddy transplantation had been conducted only on 63.79 percent of the total paddy fields. 

According to the ministry, this year, paddy transplantation has been completed in 42,200 hectares out of 48,100 hectares of paddy production land in the high hill region. In the mid hills, the transplantation has been done in 294,900 hectares out of 346,000 hectares of land. Similarly, the Tarai region has observed transplantation on 920,382 hectares out of 977,414 hectares of paddy production land. 

The ministry reveals the statistics at a time when the farmers have been complaining of not getting adequate amounts of chemical fertilizers amid the transplantation season. Experts say this could affect the production of paddy this year despite having encouraging paddy transplantation statistics.

This year's monsoon entered Nepal on June 12, two days later than the tentative time to arrive in the country. Farmers normally carry on paddy transplantation till mid-August.

The agriculture sector contributes 27 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), while the contribution of paddy alone stands at six percent.

 
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