RAUTAHAT, JULY 17: Farmers of Sarlahi and Rautahat have been left high and dry due to the lack of irrigation in the paddy planting season. Due to the lack of rainfall even in July, paddy saplings have started to dry up in the bed and paddy fields are also drying up.
Farmers were happy when there was rainfall in mid-June. In Rautahat, it rained on June 15 and June 29, but since then, there has been no rain, leaving the farmers who cultivate paddy worried.
Some farmers in places with bore-well facilities and canal water have been able to plant paddy, but because most of the farming is done with rain water, the farmers of Sarlahi and Rautahat have suffered a lot.
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According to Kisan Yadav, a farmer of Sarlahi's Dhankaul, farmers have suffered the most damage due to lack of rain so far. He said that the saplings dry up in the bed due to extreme sunlight. There are no hopes of irrigation. Hence, farmers wish for rainfall.
After spending the whole summer in drought, hoping for rainfall each day, the farmers are very disappointed and upset.
In Rautahat, some percent of cultivation has been done with the water of Bagmati Irrigation Project. Due to the lack of sufficient water, farmers are struggling. Similarly, the farmers of the northern region have irrigated with their efforts, but water hasn’t reached seventy-five percent of the districts.
Even though there is a canal, the farmers are in trouble due to lack of water. When the weather is dry and the fields need a lot of water, there is a problem for the farmers because the water is not coming into the canal as per the requirement.
Farmers in places where there are no canals have faced a lot of problems. A farmer of Garuda-2 said that 20 percent of the paddy saplings had dried up in the field.
