Kanchanpur. So far, 48 percent paddy has been sown in Kanchanpur. According to Dharma Saud, assistant crop development officer of Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Kanchanpur, paddy is cultivated on 48,496 hectares of land in the district. Of these, paddy has been planted on 23,278 hectares of land. According to him, 80 per cent of paddy sowing will be completed within the next two weeks as the rainfall continues.

The production of paddy is four metric tonnes per hectare. Farmers have been cultivating more varieties of sarju 52 varieties of paddy. After this, Radha 4, Dry 1 and 2, polyguni lagat paddy are cultivated. Officer Saud said that the production of rice is increasing every year as chaite paddy cultivation has started in the irrigated areas.

Although the rain has been delayed, the availability of irrigation has led the farmers to carry forward the work of paddy sowing. Farmers have been planting saplings in the areas where Mahakali irrigation facilities have been available since the last week of May. Since the first week of June, farmers have been irrigating the fields with shallow tubewells and deep tubewells.

Some areas including Bhimdutta Municipality, Bedkot Municipality, Beldandi Rural Municipality and Belauri Municipality have irrigation facilities through the Mahakali Irrigation Canal. Farmers in other areas have been irrigating paddy from private and subsidized shallow tubewells and deep tubewells.

Even the farmers, who have been planting on the basis of sky water without irrigation facilities, have taken forward the work of paddy sowing from the rain water from last night to this morning.

Farmer Bil Bahadur Chaudhary of Shuklaphanta Municipality-3 said that due to lack of adequate rainfall, he has been irrigating the fields with the help of shallow tubewells and planting paddy. “We got chemical fertilizers on time,” he said, adding, “We have buried tubewells in the fields with subsidy. ’

He said that although the cost has increased, the production of paddy will increase as the sowing is timely. Agriculture Knowledge Center, Municipality and others have been providing subsidy to farmers for cultivating paddy seeds, pesticides, agricultural implement machines etc. in a modern way. At present, farmers are planting more hybrid varieties of rice, which produce more yield than the local varieties.