Kathmandu. It has been almost two months since the monsoon system became active across the country, but eight districts of Madhes province have not received rainfall.

Due to lack of timely rainfall, the farmers here have to face extreme drought and drought. Farmers here, who have to depend on rainwater for paddy sowing, have not been able to sow paddy even till the first week of Shravan due to lack of water.

The Madhes state government had declared eight districts of Madhes as drought-prone areas on July 15 due to drought and drought, while a meeting of the Council of Ministers held on July 17 declared Madhes province as disaster-prone areas.

Due to lack of water in various districts of Madhes province, sowing has not been done on time, while farmers are facing problems such as drying of paddy seeds. The farmers of Madhes, who are facing shortage of fertilizer every year, are facing drought and drought this year.

According to Bahadur Kawadi, a farmer of Sohanisinurjoda Dhanusha of Laxminia rural municipality, paddy sowing could not be completed by this time in the previous year, but this time there was no rain, there was no water in the canal, due to which the paddy seeds have also dried up. He complained that the local government and the state government did not pay attention to eating for the farmers and agriculture here.

Bindeshwar Ravidas, another farmer from the same village, pointed to the dried pump in his field and said that the pump dried up and it did not rain, so farming could not be done on time. Although the Kamala Irrigation Project is for irrigation in the area, it has not been found to be very effective.

Although the irrigation project aims to benefit 40,000 households in 25,000 hectares of agricultural land in Dhanusha and Siraha with surface irrigation facilities through canals, most of the pumps of the project are not in operation at present. Shrawan Kumar Chaurasia, a farmer of Lohar Patti Municipality, Mahottari, complained that he could not get fertilizer and pump sets were not distributed while planting in the dry field. He said that even after distributing the municipality pumpsets, only those who have access to the money and access will get it.

Photo: Prakash Chandra Timilsina/ Nepal Photo Library