Rajbiraj, October 19

Thanks to timely and adequate rainfall this season, Saptari is likely to see increased paddy production this year.

According to the District Agriculture Development Office Rajbiraj, of the total 70,000 hectares of arable land, paddy was planted in 56,000 hectares.

Chief of DADO Saptari, Bhagirath Yadav, said paddy production was likely to go up due to timely and adequate rainfall.

Last year, paddy was planted only on 32,800 hectares of land because of scant rainfall in the monsoon season. Yadav estimated that paddy production will be 2.5 metric tonnes per hectare this year, against 2 metric tonnes per hectare last year. He estimated that a total of 140,000 metric tonnes of paddy will be produced in the district this year.

A source at the agro office said floods had completely damaged 7,700 hectares of paddy fields, leaving 5,000 families of 16 VDCs in a lurch.

Yadav said that the government had failed to provide the victimised farmers with any relief, although he had written to the concerned authority a long time back.