By Our Correspondent
Hetauda, ​​Nov. 27: The overall production of paddy in Bagmati Province has increased this year.
Annual production of paddy has increased this year, but the productivity has fallen in the districts of the Province.
Although the cultivation area of paddy, the main crop of the state, has increased this year as compared to last year, the productivity has declined in proportion to the expansion of the paddy plantation area.
Last year, the productivity of paddy in the province was 3.82 per cent per hectare but this year it came down to 3.64 per cent.
According to Ram Hari Timilsina, agronomist at Agriculture Development Directorate of Bagmati Province, the area of paddy cultivation has increased from 111,743 hectares to 125,107 hectares this year.
The production of paddy has increased to 455,820 tonnes this year while around 427,182 tonnes of paddy was produced last year.
Paddy production has increased with the expansion of the sector, he said, adding that productivity had declined.
He said that there was a decline in productivity due to non-availability of chemical fertilisers at the required time and outbreaks of various diseases and pests in the paddy.
In Chitwan district, which has the largest area under paddy cultivation in the Province, 103,416 tonnes of paddy was produced in an area of ​​27,305 hectares this year.
Around 87,048 tonnes of paddy was produced in an area of ​​22,263 hectares in Chitwan last year.
In Nuwakot, paddy was cultivated in an area of ​​11,264 hectares last year, but this year it has been expanded to 14,387 hectares.
The annual production of paddy in Nuwakot has increased to 62,632 tonnes this year from 48,548 tonnes last year, according to the Directorate.
Meanwhile, the government of Nepal has issued a directive to purchase paddy from farmers through cooperatives, but the cooperatives have not shown any interest in purchasing the paddy.
The government has fixed the support price of coarse paddy at Rs. 2,735 per quintal and medium quality paddy at Rs. 2,885 per quintal, said Meghnath Timilsina, senior agriculture officer at the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project Implementation Unit, Chitwan.
According to him, only three cooperatives had come to Chitwan to buy paddy as per the support price fixed by the government.
According to our Sindhuli correspondent, paddy production had decreased by 4,815 tonnes this year as compared to last year due to pest outbreak.
According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, in Sindhuli 42,500 tonnes of paddy was produced in 14,764 hectares of land this year.
According to the centre, 47,351 tonnes of paddy was produced in 15,300 hectares last year.
Similarly, paddy production in Ramechhap district has decreased this year as compared to last year.
Nirmala Gurung, chief of the Agriculture Knowledge Centre Ramechhap, said that paddy production in the district had declined by more than 1.21 per cent this year.
According to Gurung, 26,986 tonnes of paddy had been produced in 8,819 hectares of land in the district this year.
However, paddy production has increased in Kavrepalanchok district as compared to the previous year.
Crop Development Officer and Information Officer of Agriculture Knowledge Centre Kavrepalanchok Thark GC informed that paddy production had increased by 6 per cent as compared to the previous year.
According to him, paddy was cultivated in 11,280 hectares of land this year while it was cultivated in 11,266 hectares of land last year.