Nepali farmers bear brunt of climate change

Lalitpur [Nepal], June 29 (ANI): Farmers in Nepal have been bearing the brunt of climate change and inadequate rainfall as they have to replace the traditional irrigation canals with 'costly' high power generators to plant their crops.

The high power generators lift the water from the river up to the field to wet the mud.

"We have to plant the paddy pumping up the water. There is no adequate rainfall. It's 15 of Ashar (Third month of the Lunar Calendar), till now there should have been incessant rainfall but due to the dearth of it, we have to pump water from the river and plant saplings. What to do?" Maila Maharjan, a farmer in the Bungmati, Lalitpur told ANI.

The water pumps, used by the farmers nowadays to irrigate their land, cost a heavy amount of 600 Nepalese Rupee per hour for the operational charge of the machine.

"We do have irrigation canals in our village; if it would have functioned then we would not have needed to use the machines for the pumping of the water. We want to use the available things," another farmer Manahari Maharjan opined.

The agriculture sector of Nepal contributes about 35 per cent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but the lack of agricultural beneficiaries always has been a problem for the farmers.

Highlighting the importance of agriculture in Nepal, the government has been celebrating the mid of Ashar (end of June this year) as the National Day for paddy. However, no progress has been seemed to be achieved as of now. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI