KATHMANDU, June 27: Nepal’s paddy production increased 4.37 percent to over 5.72 million tons in fiscal year 2023/24, due to an increase in use of improved seeds, easy availability of chemical fertilizers and timely and adequate rainfall in the main rice plantation season.
The records with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) show that the country produced 5,724,234 tons of paddy in the current fiscal year. In FY 2022/23, the production of the staple food was 5,486,472 tons.
Hari Bahadur KC, spokesperson for the MoALD, said that paddy production has been increasing in the past few years. According to him, the use of hybrid seeds has played a role in an increasing yield of the agricultural product despite a rapid increase in land plotting, urbanization and barren land.
Paddy production projected to drop to 5.15 million tons
The report of Agriculture Census 2021 shows that Nepal produces paddy on 1,216,400 hectares of land. The cultivable land size decreased by around 250,000 hectares in the past one decade.
The government had targeted to increase the productivity of rice to 4 tons per hectare from 3.1 tons per hectare in the past five years. However, it could only achieve productivity of 3.3 tons per hectare in the stipulated time period. According to the MoALD, the government has been operating a massive paddy production program in 23 districts across the country.
Despite an increase in production of paddy in terms of quantity and productivity, the domestic yield remains inadequate to meet the demand for the staple food. Nepal produces an average of 5.5 million tons of paddy every year compared to the actual consumption of over 7.1 million tons. As a result, the country imports an average of 1.7 million tons of paddy every year.
KC said the government has set an aim to make Nepal self-reliant in paddy by 2028. “For this purpose, the government has targeted to increase the annual production to 7.8 million tons, up by 2.3 million tons in the next four years,” he added.
Meanwhile, farmers have transplanted paddy in 450,000 hectares of land as of Tuesday, in the two weeks since the onset of monsoon this year. Out of 118 variants of paddy, 35 types are being produced for commercial purpose.
