Kathmandu, August 6

Paddy plantation this season has been completed on 86 per cent of the total 1.37 million hectares of arable land used for paddy plantation across the country as of Saturday, according to the latest update provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) today.

Compared to the same period of last fiscal, this is a decline by 3.62 percentage points. As per MoALD, paddy plantation had been completed on 89.6 per cent of arable land in the same period of the previous fiscal.

As per MoALD data, paddy plantation has been completed over 1.18 million hectares of arable land across the country so far. However, during the same period of last year plantation was completed over 1.22 million hectares of land.

Along with the beginning of monsoon in the Tarai in the last three weeks, paddy plantation has increased significantly. According to MoALD data, paddy plantation has been carried out across 221,087 hectares of arable land in Province 1, while in the same period of last year paddy plantation was completed over 238,083 hectares of land.

Similarly, paddy plantation has been completed across 299,776 hectares of arable land in Province 2 while in the same period last year it was completed over 308,806 hectares of land.

Likewise, in Province 3 and Gandaki Province paddy plantation has been completed over 102,227 hectares and 93,756 hectares of land, respectively.

However, last year during the same period paddy plantation was completed over 103,024 hectares of land in Province 3 and 104,584 hectares in Gandaki Province.

The data further show that paddy plantation in Province 5 has been completed over 269,774 hectares of land while in the corresponding period last fiscal plantation was completed over 277,421 hectares of land.

Meanwhile, paddy plantation this year in Karnali Province has increased slightly. As per MoALD, paddy plantation in the province has been completed over 36,122 hectares while last year it stood at 35,143 hectares.

Meanwhile, in Sudupaschim Province, plantation has been done over 156,948 hectares of land, against 162,274 hectares in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, in terms of geography, paddy plantation has been completed across 42,816 hectares of arable land in the High-hills, 299,895 hectares in Mid-hills and 836,979 hectares of arable land in Tarai.

Paddy production alone has over 20 per cent contribution to the total agricultural production of Nepal, while the agriculture sector has around 27 per cent contribution to the national gross domestic product.