Drought drying up corn plants

Jhapa: The farmers of Jhapa are worried after the long drought has started drying up the maize crops in the fields.

The drought is likely to cause significant damage to the maize crop as it has happened just at the time when the plants start growing the corncob, said crop expert Rajendra Kharel. It is likely to have a major impact on production this year.

Though government data shows that more than 60 percent of the arable land in the district has irrigation facilities, most of the irrigation projects are not operational due to the lack of regular maintenance and drying up of water sources.

Ambika Siwakoti, a local farmer of Mechinagar, says that most of the corn crops in the village have dried up due to lack of water in the irrigational canal and severe drought. Furthermore, as Siwakoti said so far no representative of the government at any level has come to take stock of the situation of the maize plants.

According to Chetanath Bhandari, information officer of Krishi Knowledge Centre, maize was cultivate in 44,250 hectares of land in Jhapa in the financial year 2079-80, which has expanded in the current year. The annual projection of maize production for the district is 250,000 metric tons.

The Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project has been providing subsidies for irrigation and equipment to the maize zone declared in Jhapa Rural Municipality. Jhapa rural municipality and Kankai municipality have been subsidizing 60 percent of the electricity tariff for irrigation to the farmers cultivating maize.

Agricultural expert Kharel says that the main reason for the long drought is the effect of climate change. Cob-less corn may be another problem that is likely in maize fields in the drought-affected areas.

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