April 19: Natural disasters occurring one after another have started taking a toll on the farmers. Farmers suffer due to floods after rains in the rainy season and suffer due to conditions like drought and wind during the dry season. Farmers who depend on agriculture for their livelihood are troubled the most by the unseasonal hailstorm and windstorm.

Farmers, who were troubled by the unexpected rainfall during mid-October, are now suffering due to wind and hailstorm.

The hailstorm of last week damaged crops grown in Jhapa. Hazrat Ali Miya, 63, of Jhapa Municipality-4 said that crops planted in 4 bigahas of rented land were destroyed by hailstorm. He expressed, “I don't know how to repay the loan now.”

He has been cultivating in four bighas of land for the last three years on the condition of giving a certain amount of paddy or maize per bigha annually to the land owner. He said that the maize planted at a cost of Rs 60,000 per bigha is now limited to 10 kathas. He expressed his despair saying that the hailstorm soaked the corn plants so bad that it cannot be even fed to cows. The unexpected rain last October also damaged the paddy right before the harvesting season.

“Last October, when the paddy was about to ripen, the rain destroyed it,” he said.

Farmer Lal Miya of the same locality also leased seven bighas of land to grow maize. However, he shared his sorrow saying that the recent hailstorm and strong winds destroyed everything. He said, “Who should we share about our pain with? There are no helping hands for poor people. There are only listeners and spectators during our hard times.” Last October, his paddy crop was also damaged. However, he complained that he has not received any relief so far.

Farmer Laxmi Upreti of Jhapa municipality-3 said that her maize were severely damaged.

Under the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project, maize is cultivated in the district by declaring it the maize zone. Maize farming flourished in the district after the government started providing subsidized fertilizers and seeds as well as agricultural equipment.

 According to Rabin Niraula, information officer at the project office, cultivation is being done in 500 hectares of land in Kankai Municipality, Barhadashi, Jhapa and Kachankawal. Niraula said that the office has not received any information about the damage caused to maize due to strong winds.

Currently, maize is being cultivated in an area of ​​about 40,000 hectares in the district. Strong winds and hail storms have also caused severe damage to vegetables.