Paddy transplantation meagre at 10 percent
KATHMANDU, JUL 03 - The Ministry of Agricultural Development has said that paddy transplantation across the country was recorded at 10 percent on average as of July 1 as the monsoon arrived 10 days behind schedule. The rains usually begin around June 10. During the same period last year, the average transplantation was recorded at 15 percent.
According to the ministry, even if rainfall improves in July, the June deficiency could result in a drop in productivity by at least 5 percent. “This can increase further if the July rains are delayed,” said Tek Prasad Luitel, senior agro economist at the ministry.
Meanwhile, global forecasters have said that things will be quite fine. The fifth version of the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum, an annual meet of weather experts, scientists and meteorologists to forecast the South Asian monsoon, has predicted normal to below normal rainfall in Nepal.
Luitel said that paddy transplantation started this week in most of Tarai district after some districts received modest rainfall. Transplantation in the hills has progressed at the slowest rate of 15-17 percent since the monsoon arrived on June 20. In the same period last year, transplantation was completed on 9 percent of the total rice fields in the Tarai and on 25 percent in the hills. The Tarai contains 70 percent of the country’s paddy fields totalling 1.52 million hectares.
“It’s too early to predict whether paddy productivity will be affected this year as in the case of the Tarai region, productivity can still recover if there are good rains by the end of July,” Luitel said. “However, the July rainfall will be vital for plants for them to grow well and inadequate rains by next week in the Tarai could harm the agricultural scenario,” he added. There are often insufficient rains in June and rainfall has been highly variable. It rains the hardest during July and August and the monsoon may revive during this period.
Barun Poudel, a senior meteorologist at the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD) in Kathmandu , said that the June was highly variable. “However, the monsoon started to become active from July 1 and there were rains across the country,” he said, adding that rain has been forecast for the next three days. Nepal’s paddy output dropped 11.3 percent to 4.50 million tonnes in the fiscal year 2012-13 due to drought that resulted in a meagre growth of 1.07 percent in the agricultural sector. The poor agricultural output resulted in the economic growth rate plunging to a six-year low of 3.56 percent, the lowest since fiscal 2006-07 when growth was 2.75 percent.
The repercussion of the 2012-13 drought was seen this fiscal year when the country’s cereal import bill reached Rs 20.92 billion from Rs 13 billion in the last fiscal year.
The average rainfall in the previous fiscal was recorded at 83.3 mm. Rainfall was recorded at 61 mm in June, 87 mm in July and 90 mm in August. There was a slight relief when the average rainfall during the paddy transplantation season this fiscal year rose above normal to 115.3 mm that resulted in a good cereal harvest. Cereal output is projected to jump 9.4 percent to 9.56 million tonnes this fiscal year due to timely rains.
The overall growth in cereal production has helped the agricultural sector to swell 4.72 percent this year, while the government
has projected an economic growth rate of 5.15 percent, the highest since 2008-09.
According to the ministry, rainfall was recorded at 125 mm in June, 12 mm in July and 129 mm in August at that time.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
