Lack of irrigation behind minimal spring paddy

SARLAHI: Sarlahi district has 691 hectares of land which can be cultivated for spring paddy (chaite dhan), but only 50 hectares of land is used for this crop in a year. The sheer insufficiency of irrigation has led to uselessness of the land.

Although the Prime Minister Modernization Project is in force to encourage farmers to grow spring paddy, the area for it has not increased at all. Project chief senior agriculture officer Rambalam Prasad Saha informed that the district is growing summer paddy in 45,950 hectares of land, producing around 167 thousand metric tons of rice in a year.

The district having plain land is considered favourable for varieties of crops, but the farmers are not attracted to planting chaite dhan.

The project has focused some wards of Haripurwa municipality and Parsa rural municipality in the district for the cultivation of spring paddy. The project introduced in 2073BS was brought into execution in district in the fiscal year, 2077/78.

The farmers have been provided agricultural and irrigation tools along with training.However, the spring paddy is not grown even in the pocket area. Only 50 hectares of land from Ishworpur, lalbandi, Barahathawa, Haripurwa, Godaita and Kavilashi is used for the spring paddy, according to Agriculture Knowledge Centre.

The locals complained that they could cultivate the paddy but there is an acute shortage of irrigation. A farmer from Sirsiya of Kabilashi municipality, Ramadhar Raya, said, “It is dry season. The paddy requires regular water supply. There is no irrigation facility, hindering us to involve in the cultivation of sprig rice.”

Most of the farmers had used pump sets and electric motors to draw groundwater, which, however, did not sustain for long, he added.

However, the spring paddy sees less chance of disease and pests compared to the summer paddy, according to the agriculture officer.