KATHMANDU

Although the rains occurred for some days came as a relief to the farmers here, they are still worried over shortage of chemical fertilizer as it is time for rice plantation. When there was no rainfall, the farmers used boring to draw water for irrigation, but they are now happy to have the rainfall in a long gap. Unavailability of chemical fertilizers has hit hard the farmers. So far, only 10 percent of arable land has been cultivated for rice plantation.

Chief of agriculture knowledge centre, Dr. Dil Bahadur Bista, said as the regular supply of fertilizers was disrupted in the country, non-standard chemical fertilizer has been imported. Sanjay Rana from Bedkot Municipality informed that they were forced to buy the chemical fertilizers on exorbitant price- Rs 2,500 per sack. “Many farmers are not able to transplant rice for lack of chemical fertilizer.”

He added that there is no huge amount of import. The security persons at border were allowing for only a sack of fertilizer once on a motorcycle and bicycle. The agricultural inputs office this time provided only half sack of fertilizer, Rana shared the plight. “Why the government was not managing chemical fertilizer as it was peak time for rice plantation,” he wondered and worried. Chief of agriculture inputs company, Bal Bahadur Sah, said only 600 metric tons of DAP fertilizer arrived here for rice plantation a month back. Since then, there is no supply at all, he added.