The decline has been attributed to delayed monsoon that forced farmers to leave their land fallow and also the flood that washed away major plantation areas in September.
“Protracted dryness, the main culprit, is going to reduce the productions by half this season,” Hikmat Bahadur Shrestha, chief of Dadeldhura DADO, told myrepublica.com. Whatever hope DADO had pinned on the plantations too was washed away by flood that struck the region early last month.
Farmers in the district had cultivated paddy in 6,921 hectares. DADO had expected this to generate paddy yield of some 13,666 tons. “But with flood washing away the major farmlands, we have been forced to further downscale the production,” said Shrestha.
With the major drop in productions, DADO has expressed fear of food crisis affecting more village development committees (VDCs) this year. “More farmers have become vulnerable,” Shrestha added.
“Flood triggered landslide washed away my major cultivable land. I have no option now but to buy rice from the market to avoid hunger,” said Dhan Bahadur Bhandari, a farmer from Samaiji.
Following the natural disaster, farmers in the district wear a downtrodden look. With harvest season approaching, they said they will reap much lesser paddy this year. “We don´t know how long this will help us feed ourselves,” they added.
Earlier, DADO had estimated the paddy productivity for this season at 1.5 quintal per ropani (5,476 sq. ft). But it has downgraded this figure after floods washed away about 350 ropanis of paddy fields in the district.
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