Banke. Duduwa rural municipality has started distributing paddy seeds to farmers. From this year, the municipality itself has prepared and started distributing seeds. The municipality had prepared and stored the seeds of improved varieties by producing the original seeds of paddy.
Sushil Kumar Sharma, chief of agriculture section of the municipality, said paddy seeds have been sold to 14 cooperatives at 50 percent subsidy. According to him, 120 quintals of improved varieties and 80 quintals of original seeds have been distributed to the farmers through cooperative groups.
Chief Sharma said that after planting 80 quintals of original seeds, the municipality will purchase and process and store additional original seeds on the basis of production after testing them from technicians from time to time. This year’s seed will cover only 1,400 hectares of land in Duduwa, which has an area of 2,580 hectares for paddy cultivation.
Chairman of the municipality, Narendra Kumar Chaudhary, said that Duduwa, which has started storing seeds from this year, will gradually focus on seed production. The municipality, which prepared paddy seeds for the first time, is also preparing to process wheat seeds from this year. Sharma said that the target of procuring about 200 quintals of wheat would be increased further based on the demand of the farmers. He said that lab testing of wheat crop is currently underway through technicians. After distributing seeds to the farmers by the municipality itself, the agricultural production will increase and there is no need to go elsewhere to search.
Chairman Chaudhary said that the municipality has brought a special program with the goal of producing seeds and delivering them home for the convenience of the farmers as about 90 percent of the farmers in Duduwa are dependent on farming. According to him, a state-of-the-art processing plant has been installed and brought into operation for seed storage and processing as per the strategy to make them self-reliant in seeds.
Duduwa will carry out seed production and storage of all agricultural crops in the coming days, according to the Agriculture Section. A storage centre of 700 metric tons capacity has been set up at Duduwa-2 for processing and marketing of seed production.
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