Farmers left with nothing as near-harvest paddy is washed away

Rajbiraj (Saptari), Oct 5: Bhimraj Mandal of Hanumannagar Kankalini Municipality-1 had planted paddy in two bigaha of land and just when the time of harvest was near, all of it has been washed away by the Koshi flood water. All the hard work done so far was washed away by the flood and I am not sure what to do next, says Mandal. He is not the only one as most of the farmers are suffering due of the severe floods in the Koshi river.

“The Koshi floods took away everything at the time of harvest, the investment of millions of rupees by the farmers here had drowned”, said Umesh Majhi, one of the farmers hit by the late monsoon-induced disaster. Likewise, Lakshman Pramani, a farmer near the Koshi Barrage, was looking forward to harvesting paddy immediately after Dashain festival. “All the paddy planted in four bigaha of land has been washed away by the floods, now I am more concerned about how to manage daily household expenses”, he said, Most of the households in the area are landless squatters.

About 45 families have been earning their livelihood by working in and around the Koshi Barrage. Besides growing paddy, the daily life of most of them is spent in collecting firewood brought by the flood water of Koshi river. Birendra Kabir, a local, said that paddy has been planted on about 500 bigaha of land in the area. Similarly, paddy farms of about one hundred families including Anil Majhi, Paras Majhi, Bathuh Majhi, Mohan Sant, Musharu Ram, Sunil Ram, Mahesh Majhi, Sakaldev Logi and Ashok Khadga, Basudev Khadga and Manwodh Jha of Bhardaha village have been destroyed due to the floods.

Meanwhile, Ward Chair Surendra Mandal shared that paddy planted in 500 bigaha of land was completely destroyed. According to Saptari of Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Rajbiraj, floods has damaged paddy crops in ward nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11 and 14 of the Hanumannagar Kankalini Municipality. Similarly, thousands of bigaha of paddy crops have been destroyed in Tilathi Koiladi, Kanchanrup Municipalities and Tirhut Rural Municipality of the district. —RSS