left Farmers in Banke have lack of chemical fertilizers during the time of rice rotting. Despite the late rains this year, the farmers of Banke, who planted more than last year, have expressed concern that the production will decrease if they do not get fertilizer when it is needed for paddy cultivation.

Bhadra Prasad Devkota, a farmer of Khajura-2 Sitapur, mentioned that fertilizer is needed now as weed has started growing in the planted paddy and he is worried that the rice production will decrease this year if fertilizer is not available.

He informed that in the past, it was easy to bring two or four bags of fertilizer from Rupaidiha, India, but this time they were not allowed to bring even one bag from the border. Farmer Devkota said, "The biggest problem for us now is not getting enough chemical fertilizers."

Krishi Gyan Kendra Banke has mentioned that most of the farmers in the district have been complaining about not getting fertilizer and said that if they don't get chemical fertilizer at the time of rice weeding, the production will decrease. Sujita Sharma, information officer of Krishi Gyan Kendra Banke, mentioned that rice needs nutrition during planting, weeding and tillering, and informed that if farmers do not apply chemical fertilizers to rice at this time, the production will decline.

She said, "Unnecessary weeding in rice reduces the production by about 15 percent, but if there is no fertilizer, the production is reduced by 30 to 50 percent."

Last year, 99.5 percent planting was done in the district, while this year, 99.8 percent planting was done. But this year, if we don't get fertilizer, it is certain that the production will be affected, he said. The area of ​​paddy production land in Banke is 33 thousand 570 hectares, this year rice was planted in 33 thousand 503 hectares.

Stating that mandatory fertilizer is required at the time of germination of hemp within 20 to 25 days after planting and after 50 days at the time of sowing, Information Officer Sharma said that there is a risk of production decrease as most of the farmers complained of not getting fertilizer.

Last year, 150,000 metric tons of paddy was produced in the district. Pushparaj Shrestha, Branch Head of Agricultural Materials Company Limited, Banke, said that there is a shortage of fertilizers due to the lack of chemical fertilizers as per the target to be distributed to the farmers in Banke.

According to him, in the last financial year 2082/83, 4 thousand 822.450 metric tons of urea, 2 thousand 633.800 metric tons of DAP and 207.750 metric tons of potash were sold from Agricultural Materials Company Limited Banke, and until the 15th of August 2083/84, 1 thousand 17 metric tons of urea, 299.400 metric tons of DAP and 27.350 metric tons of potash have been sent to the local level.

National News Committee is the official news organization of Nepal.