Land left barren due to over flooding

KATHMANDU: Hundreds of hectares of land in the Bhajani Municipality of Kailali have been left barren due to the threat of floods.

Every year hundreds of hectares of land in wards 3, 5, 7, 8, around Bhajani’s postal highway are left fallow, the farmers said.

The farmers of Bhajani cultivate chaite paddy. During the rainy season, most of the fields are flooded and filled like ponds, so many farmers cannot cultivate paddy. Even those who cultivated in the past did not dare to cultivate this year.

Hari Bahadur Chaudhary of Bhajani cultivated paddy with great effort last year. The flood that occurred washed away his paddy field. “Last year we could not get even a grain of rice, so this year we have kept two bighas of land barren”, says Hari Bahadur, ”

Likewise, Man Bahadur Saund, a farmer, says it requires hard work and investment to grow paddy. This year about 1,000 bighas of land are left barren.

Bal Bahadur Budha of Bhajani, “Now most of the farmers’ fields in Bhajani look like ponds. Lands that could be cultivated in the past have also been left barren this year.”

Meanwhile, Kamal Chaudhary, Head of the Agriculture Branch of Bhajani Municipality, says that there is a compulsion to keep the fields barren in the submerged area. “We have not kept the statistics of how much land is left barren but most of the land is barren.”

Chowdhury says that there are various programs to help farmers in Bhajaniincluding encouraging Chaite paddy for the Khalla Khet (where there is more water). According to him, the flood that occurred in Bhajani last year washed away the paddy crop planted in 3,000 hectares.