Madhesh Province has been officially declared a crisis-ridden zone following a prolonged drought. The delayed monsoon has severely affected daily life, resulting in an acute shortage of water both for drinking and irrigation purposes.
However, there has been a slim of hope. Since Sunday, light to moderate rain has poured across almost all parts of the country, offering much-needed relief to farmers who have been badly waiting to begin plantation.
Around fifty per cent of rice farming in Nepal depends on monsoon rainfall, according to official data. The current drought, especially severe in the eight districts of the Madhes Province, is expected to significantly reduce rice production this year. Although the rainfall is still light to moderate, it has brought some relief to the farmers of the region.
Amidst these challenges, Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Prakash Kumar Sanjel, has assured that the Department is mulling alternative crop production if the adverse conditions for paddy transplantation continue beyond mid-August. “We recently concluded a field visit to Madhes to assess the impact of the drought on agriculture and explore viable solutions,” he pointed out.
He said that immediate efforts would focus on repairing canal systems, shallow tube-wells, and deep boring systems to expand irrigation access for rice transplantation. Due to the prolonged drought, rice seedlings have dried up, and cracks have formed in the paddy fields.
If sufficient rainfall does not occur soon, rice transplantation in Madhes is expected to decline significantly, leading to a considerable drop in national production.
According to the Fresh Agricultural and Livestock Diary, the agriculture sector contributes 24.1 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides employment to 50.4 per cent of the population. Madhes Province alone accounts for 16.25 per cent of the country’s total paddy fields.
The province has 542,580 hectares of arable land, with rice cultivation taking place in 502,244 hectares.
