December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. According to government data, the production of paddy increased this year by almost seven percent. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) said that the country produced 5,486,472 tons of paddy this year, which is 6.94 percent more than the yield of last year.

The ministry published the report based on the data of estimated rice production provided by all the seven provinces of the country.

According to the MoALD, paddy plantation this year was done on 1,447,789 hectares of land, which was two percent less than that of last year but the production was up by 6.94 percent. The productivity has also grown to 3.8 tons per hectare this year. Earlier, the productivity of rice was 3.5 tons per hectare.

The production last year was affected due to the unseasonal rainfall in October last year.

This year, the weather was fair and the farmers were provided with fertilizer a bit late while the use of improved variety of seeds also contributed to the growth in production.

Although the production this year increased, it was still less than the production two years ago by 200,000 metric tons when the country produced 5,621,000 tons – a record high production in the last seven years.

Province-wise, the Madhesh Province produced 1,388,000 tons of paddy this year, the largest of all. Province 1 produced 1,336,000 tons and Lumbini province grew 1,151,000 tons of paddy during the main harvesting season.