Kathmandu, August 19

This year, paddy plantation has been completed on 94.42 per cent of the total 1.37 million hectares of arable land used for paddy plantation across the country, as per data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD).

Compared to the same period last year, this year paddy plantation has declined by 0.96 percentage point. As per MoALD, paddy plantation had been completed on 95.39 per cent of arable land in the previous fiscal.

MoALD data show that paddy plantation has been completed on 1.29 million hectares of arable land across the country this year while the plantation was completed on 1.30 million hectares of land in the previous year. The ministry has mentioned that the late monsoon and floods caused by heavy rainfall have slightly affected paddy plantation this year.

According to MoALD statistics, paddy plantation has been carried out across 257,938 hectares of arable land in Province 1, while last year paddy plantation was completed on 260,552 hectares.

Meanwhile, the plantation area in Province 2 has increased this year. As per MoALD, paddy plantation has been completed across 341,160 hectares of arable land in Province 2 while in the same period last year it was completed on 340,658 hectares. As per the ministry, late monsoon benefitted the Tarai region this year. Although the heavy rainfall caused landslides and floods in the country due to the late monsoon, paddy plantation was started late in Province 2. Hence, the province did not witness huge loss of paddy due to the floods and landslides, said Tej Bahadur Subedi, spokesperson for MoALD.

Likewise, in Province 3 and Gandaki Province, paddy plantation has been completed on 111,784 hectares and 96,279 hectares of land, respectively. However, last year during the same period, paddy plantation was completed over 108,632 hectares of land in Province 3 and 104,894 hectares in Gandaki Province.

Similarly, the data further mentions that paddy plantation in Province 5 has been completed on 286,572 hectares of land while in the corresponding period last year plantation was completed on 292,038 hectares.

Meanwhile, paddy plantation this year in Karnali Province has been completed on 36,910 hectares, while last year it stood at 37,767 hectares. In Sudurpaschim Province, plantation has been done on 164,639 hectares of land, while in the corresponding period of last fiscal it stood at 163,960 hectares.

Meanwhile, in terms of geography, paddy plantation has been completed across 47,194 hectares of arable land in the High-hills, 318,244 hectares in Midhills and 929,843 hectares of arable land in the 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.