Dhading, November 14

Farmers affected by the recent earthquakes, who received rice seeds from donors, are disheartened as paddy yield is likely to be low across the district.

While paddy has already begun to ripen in some places, standing plants in most of the areas have yet to bear kernels.

Earthquake-affected farmers in Benighat, Kumpur, Gajuri, Dhusha, Tripureswor and Satyadev in the district had received rice saplings from donors. Farmers complained that the Small Farmer Cooperative in the district headquarters had distributed them low-quality seeds.

The farmers had filed complaints at the District Agriculture Development Office, DAO and Ministry of Agriculture about low-quality seeds distributed to them.

The District Disaster Rescue Committee, Dhading had then formed a four-member probe committee led by technical assistant Durgadutta Panthi a few days later.

OXFAM had agreed to provide 20 kg paddy seeds to each quake-hit farmer through Small Farmer Cooperative. The cooperative had distributed paddy seeds to as many as 6,188 farmers in six VDCs.

OXFAM Nepal had provided Rs 5.6 million to the cooperative for seed distribution. The probe committee has found that the cooperative had procured and sold 1,22,980 kg of seed to the farmers in six VDCs.

Of them, cooperative had purchased 17 tons of paddy seeds from Duwadi Agrovet while rest from Chitwan.

The probe also shows that the cooperative had distributed seeds with fake labels.

Uttam Kandel from Gajuri-1 said farmers who planted the seeds provided to them in plastic sacks were hit the hardest.

Another farmer Raj Kumar Thaplaiya from Kumpur-3 said the cooperative had distributed low-quality seeds.

A senior agro officer at the District Agriculture Development Office, Dhading, pledged to take action against the cooperative.