Hundreds of hectares of land in Bhajani Municipality, 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, said the locals. The farmers in Bhajani cultivate for the Chaite paddy. During the rainy season, most of the fields are flooded and filled like ponds, so many farmers cannot cultivate paddy. No farmers dared to cultivate this year, even the ones who successfully did it in the past.
Hari Bahadur Chaudhary, cultivated paddy with great effort last year. Then the flood that occurred, washed away his paddy feild. "Last year we could not get even a grain of rice, so this year we have kept two bigha 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 also from Bhajani stated, "Most of the farmers' fields in Bhajani now look like ponds. Lands that could be cultivated in the past have also been left barren this year.”
Meanwhile, Kamal Chaudhary, Head of 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 them is barren."
Chowdhury further says that there are various programs to help farmers in Bhajani, including, 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 all the paddy crop, planted in 3,000 hectares of land.
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