Head. More than 10,000 hectares of paddy crops have been damaged due to unseasonal rainfall triggered by cyclone Montha in the district. As per the preliminary details collected by the agriculture section of 17 local levels including eight municipalities and nine rural municipalities, paddy crops in 10,728 hectares of land have been damaged.

As per the data provided by the Agriculture Section, paddy crops have been damaged in 2,232 hectares of land in Lahan Municipality, 1,358 hectares in Aurahi Municipality and around 800 hectares in Naraha Rural Municipality.

According to Prakash Sah, chief of the Agriculture Section of Lahan Municipality, around 50 percent of the paddy crops of Basmati and dry varieties have been damaged. According to him, the farmers had planted improved varieties of paddy in the hope of getting a good price.

Most of the areas towards the south from the East-West Highway have been irrigated by boring, underground irrigation and the Kamala canal system, which has caused the most damage to the improved varieties of paddy cultivated there, according to the district-based Agriculture Knowledge Centre.

“It is almost certain that paddy production will automatically decrease after the rain damages the paddy which is about to ripen,” said Narendra Kumar Mahaseth, chief of the center. ’

According to the Centre, paddy is cultivated in 54,000 hectares of land and 1,345 hectares in the district. Last year, 228,696 metric tonnes of rice was produced in 55,345 hectares of land, but this year the production is expected to drop significantly.