Paddy production down by around 500,000 tons

Kathmandu / Jan 1: Nepal’s paddy production this year has declined by around 500,000 tons, mainly due to massive floods triggered by the torrential rainfall in October, last year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), paddy production this year is down by 491,085 tons, compared to 5.621 million tons last year. The off-seasonal heavy rainfall affected large areas of paddy fields mainly in Lumbini and Sudurpaschim provinces.

The MoALD records show that the production of the cereal crop declined by 31.49 percent in Sudurpaschim Province. The natural disaster hit production by 18.38 percent in Lumbini, 8.76 percent in Karnali, 3.24 percent in Province 20.93 percent in Province 1 and 0.35 percent in Bagmati Province.