LAMJUNG: Lack of timely rainfall has rendered more than 40 percent of paddy fields bare in Lamjung district.

According to the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) of Lamjung, paddy plantation is yet to take place in the fields which do not have additional irrigation facilities.

The fields have to depend on the monsoon rain, hence remained dried, it added.

The Office informed that 16,000 hectare land of the district is used for paddy farming annually.

It is learnt that the upper part of the district has completed the plantation while the work is underway in the lower part.

DADO Chief Tej Prakash Dawadi informed that the plantation in Chakratirtha, Bhalayokharka, Dhamilikuwa, Chiti, Tarkughat, Bhorletar and Sunadarbazaar was affected by the drought.

Dudhkashi Gurung, a local of Bichaura, informed that lack of the canal has created obstacles for the plantation, causing rice saplings to wilt.

Last year, the district has produced 40,133 metric tons of rice in the district.