June 4, 2015: Free paddy seeds have been distributed to farmers who were affected by the April 25 earthquake and aftershocks by the District Agriculture Development Office, Bhaktapur.
According to Chief of the Office Purna Dhungana 17,930 kilogrammes of paddy seeds have been distributed to the affected farmers so far where many of the farmers were not able to extract paddy seeds that they had stored in their houses, which were flattened in the quake.
The disaster relief management committees and agro service centres in the district distributed local species of Chainung 242, Khumal 4, 10 and 11. The paddy seeds were purchased from farmers in Kavre as well as from Bhaktapur itself. Similarly, the funds had been received by the National Seeds Company and Save the Children to purchase the paddy seeds.
Since, Paddy transplantation in Bhaktapur usually takes place relatively earlier than in other districts so scarcity of paddy seeds has put many paddy farmers into a problem as a result.
