Kathmandu, December 3:

Laxmi Dangol (60), a resident of Madhyapur Thimi, is worried over how to feed her children throughout the year. She said she was hoping for a good harvest of paddy this year but she could harvest only half as compared to last year.

Dangol says the family used to produce surplus rice a few decades ago. She says she used to buy other essentials after selling the surplus. “Costs are more than the price nowadays. It seems it would be better to do some other business rather than wasting time in rice field,” she says.

She says the declining soil fertility is the reason behind falling productions. “All the productive land has been covered by buildings now,” she says.

Dangol is not the only one who is worried by falling production. Krishna KC of Lalitpur

says he is seeking for some other business rather than working day and night in the field.

Bhola Man Singh Basnet, a scientist at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, said the production of rice, the major staple food for over half of the world’s population, is falling in Nepal and as well as globally.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, 3,680,838 metric tonnes of rice was produced in 2006-07 whereas the production was 4,292,790 metric tonnes

in 2005-06.

Basnet said, “Change in climate, crop diversification, urbanisation and use of bio-fuels are the major causes for the decreasing paddy production across the world.”