May 14: Generally, the onset of spring season is a time cardamom flowers and buds. But, this year, cardamom plants have wilted. Even the trees that provide shade and help to keep soil damp for cardamom are getting dry.    
The plantation areas are vulnerable to blaze. This is the story about the cardamom estate of Siddhadanda at Phungling Municipality in Taplegung.    
With the parched cash crop, farmers here are worried much about the income. There is neither rainfall nor irrigation facility to water the dried crop. It is not possible to fetch water and irrigate the estate.    
"I've been planting cardamom for 40 years. I harvested as much as 1600 kgs of cardamom, but for some years, the harvest has been dented much with disease and drought. Now, the absence of rain this year has hit hard the cultivation," farmer Krishna Gurung shared the plight. "What is left to grow as the plant is dried before flowering,” he expressed his grief.    
Another farmer Bir Bahadur Phembule from the same locality shared a similar story. He expressed sadness over the imminent loss of income with drying cardamom.    
In the previous years, there used to be rainfall in early January while the Himalayan region witnessed snowfall during that time. But this year, there was no snowfall. It resulted in diminished sources of water, according to Principal Raju Hellok at Parbati Basic School from Phaktanglung Rural Municipality-5.    
"Farmers are cheerless this time as the cash crop has dried for lack of rainfall," he added.    
Moreover, Ran Bahadur Baboko, a farmer from Mangmakhe of Sirijungha Rural Municipality-6, said they will most certainly bear huge loss in cardamom plantation this time.    
Cardamom has been planted in 4,200 hectares of land in the district this year, which is 50 hectares less than last year.    
Meanwhile, in the nine months of the current fiscal year, cardamom worth Rs 6.35 billion has been exported from Nepal, according to the Department of Customs.    
The farmers here are desperately waiting for relief from concerned authorities citing the impact of drought on cardamom estate. -- RSS