Despite a good harvest, last year, farmers of Khamaedthang Chiwog under Phuentshogthang Gewog in Samdrup Jongkhar could not cultivate spring paddy this time.
This is because the farmers initially denied handing over the fields to the Farm Machinery Corporation Limited (FMCL) for spring paddy cultivation.
However, after discussing with the gewog and dzongkhag agriculture offices when they agreed, it was late for the paddy cultivation.
“We did not hand over the fields because we thought of cultivating the spring paddy by ourselves. But due to water shortage we were not able to begin the works,” said one of the farmers, Ravi Lal Adhikari.
According to the officials from FMCL, for spring paddy cultivation, fields should be readied by end of January but villagers agreed to give the land only that time. However officials assured resuming spring paddy cultivation from next season.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forests introduced spring paddy cultivation program to make use of fallow lands and to achieve self-sufficiency, last year.
The FMCL transplanted the paddy in over 95 acres of land belonging to farmers. They provided seedlings, farm machinery and technical support while villagers contributed labour for which they were paid at par with the national minimum wage rate.
The villagers were also given 20 per cent of the harvest while the remaining 80 percent was kept by FMCL to make income.
About 51,000 metric tonnes of paddy was harvested last year.
The post No spring paddy cultivation in Khamaedthang this season appeared first on BBS.