PARSA, June 27: Farmers who used to wait for rain for paddy plantation in the past years have been affected by early rainfall this year.
There is enough water in the fields for paddy plantation but the seedlings are not ready yet for plantation. Munilal Prasad, chief of the Agriculture Knowledge Center, Parsa, said that there was a problem in preparing the seedlings as rainfall occurred earlier than usual this year.
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Prasad said that the development of the seeds has been affected due to heavy rains that occurred a little earlier than usual because of which the rain water could not be utilized for paddy plantation.
Like other districts in the Terai, paddy is the main crop of Parsa. According to the records of the District Agriculture Knowledge Center, paddy is cultivated in 46,000 to 47,000 hectares of land in Parsa district. Generally, farmers prepare beds and sow the seeds in May. Planting starts from the third week of June.
Although there are government-planned irrigation programs in the district, not all of them are effective. This has forced farmers to rely on rain water for cultivation. Both the agronomists and the farmers argue that the situation has changed due to the arrival of rainfall a bit sooner than expected this year.
