JANAKPUR: Despite nearly two months of an active monsoon system across the country, eight districts in Nepal’s Madhesh Province have yet to receive meaningful rainfall, pushing the region into a severe agricultural crisis.
Farmers who rely entirely on seasonal rains for rice cultivation have been left waiting well beyond the traditional planting period.
With the third week of July already over, most farmers in the region have been unable to transplant paddy due to a prolonged dry spell.
The crisis has deepened to the extent that on July 10, the Madhesh Provincial Government declared the eight districts drought-affected. Subsequently, the federal cabinet, in its meeting on July 22, formally designated Madhesh Province as a disaster-affected region due to the ongoing drought.
Farmers across districts like Dhanusha, Siraha, Mahottari, and Sarlahi are experiencing dry, cracked fields. Even those who managed to transplant rice early are now watching their seedlings wither under intense heat and a complete lack of water.
“This time last year, planting would have been completed,” said Bahadur Kawadi, a farmer from Sohni Sinurjoda in Laxminiya Rural Municipality, Dhanusha. “But there has been no rain, and water from the canals is also unavailable. My seedlings have dried out.”
Kawadi added that while some farmers with pump sets have managed to irrigate their fields, the extreme heat causes the water to evaporate quickly, rendering irrigation largely ineffective. He also criticized local and provincial authorities for failing to provide adequate support.
Another local farmer, Bindeshwar Ravidas, pointed to his dried-up pump and empty fields. “Even the pump has no water. Without rainfall, timely cultivation has been impossible,” he said.
The Kamala Irrigation Project, which is supposed to provide surface irrigation to 25,000 hectares of farmland in Dhanusha and Siraha and benefit 40,000 households, has also fallen short of expectations. Most of its pumping units are currently non-functional, exacerbating the crisis.
In Loharpatti Municipality of Mahottari district, farmer Shravan Kumar Chaurasiya was seen trying to transplant rice in parched fields. He expressed frustration over not receiving fertilizer or a pump set from local authorities. “The distribution favors those with money and political connections,” he said.
Every year, farmers in Madhesh struggle with shortages of fertilizer, but this year’s compounded challenge of drought and lack of irrigation has left many with little hope for a successful harvest.
As the situation worsens, farmers across Madhesh are urgently calling for immediate intervention from local, provincial, and federal governments to provide irrigation support, ensure equitable distribution of agricultural inputs, and initiate relief measures for the drought-affected.
Photos: Nepal Photo Library
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