Siraha. After a long drought, the sowing in the district is about to end by the end of July. According to Agriculture Knowledge Centre Siraha, 88 percent of the sowing has been completed in the district so far, while the remaining sowing will be completed within the next few days.

According to Chief Narendra Kumar Mahaseth, only about 45 percent of the sowing was done till the second week of July. “However, continuous rainfall that started in the third week of July increased the pace of sowing and by mid-July, 88 per cent of the sowing has been completed,” he said. According to him, most of the farmers could not sow during the drought.

But the favorable weather at the end of July and the activism of the farmers were the main reasons for accelerating the sowing. “The production of paddy sown before July 15 is likely to be good, but there will be some decline in the production of paddy sown after that,” Mahaseth said.

He expressed the belief that an additional two per cent sowing would be completed by the first week of August. “It is estimated that around 90 per cent sowing will take place in the district this year,” he said, adding that in some areas of the northern part of the district, the paddy has dried up due to extreme drought. He, however, clarified that this was not the case in the southern region.

Agriculture Knowledge Centre has collected data on the progress of planting in coordination with 17 local levels of the district. He said that they have been preparing the data in collaboration with the agriculture branches of all the local levels.

Kamala Canal has also played an important role in paddy cultivation in the district. During the drought, it was possible to plant early planting on the groundwater sources and irrigated land through the Kamala Canal. According to the Centre, around 12,500 hectares of land has been irrigated through the Kamala Canal.

In particular, farmers of Karjanha, Mirchaiya, Kalyanpur, Siraha and Sukhipur municipalities as well as Bishnupur and Aurahi rural municipalities have directly benefited from this. According to the Knowledge Center, there is a total area of 54,000 area under paddy cultivation in Siraha.

Paddy is the main crop in the district. Almost the same amount of rainfed paddy is cultivated every year. Despite the delay seen in the initial stage of this year, the pace of sowing has increased significantly by the end of July. With the completion of the remaining sowing, it is expected that the sowing will reach the final stage in the district next week.