Area under rice cultivation shrinks by 1,700 hectares in Gandaki Province

15 Aug, Gangaki : The monsoon rice was cultivated on a total 97,769 hectares of land in Gandaki Province last year. However, the area under monsoon rice has decreased this year to 96,053 hectares.

The Province Agriculture Development Directorate said that 97.50 percent rice transplantation has been completed in the province so far this monsoon. Rice has been planted in 93,651 hectares so far, said Basudev Regmi, the Directorate Chief.

According to him, rice plantation has completed in Myagdi and Lamjung districts while it is in the final stages in the rest of the districts. Rice is cultivated in nine districts of the Province except in Mustang and Manang, the two districts lying beyond the Himalayas.

The Directorate Chief Regmi shared that the area under rice cultivation has been decreasing every year in the Province. He added that of the total 479 thousand and 617 hectares of cultivable land in the province, rice (both the spring paddy and monsoon paddy) is cultivated on around 100 thousand hectares.

The area under rice cultivation is comparatively more in Nawalpur, Kaski, Syangja, and Tanahu among other districts.

As per the statistics of the Directorate, paddy has been planted on 18,716 hectares of land in Nawalpur, on 16,220 hectares in Kaski, on 11,875 hectares in Lamjung, on 10,140 hectares in Gorkha, on 7,674 hectares in Tanahu, on 14,390 hectares in Syangja, on 7,525 hactares in Parbat, on 5,707 hectares in Baglung and on 3,806 hectares in Myagdi this year.

Chief Regmi shared that fragmentation of the rice growing areas in the name of land plotting is the main reason behind decreasing area for paddy cultivation.

The paddy cultivation area is being decreased every year due to the trend of leaving the land barren as well as the rampant infrastructure development activities that is taking place, he mentioned.

“Farmers can produce more paddy even in small areas if arrangement of irrigation facility, improvement in farming system, technology, seeds and fertilizer is done on time,” he underlined.