Drought drying up corn plants in Jhapa

Jhapa, May 6: The farmers of Jhapa are worried after the long drought has started drying up the maize crops in the fields.

The drought is likely to cause significant damage to the maize crop as it has happened just at the time when the plants start growing the corncob, said crop expert Rajendra Kharel. It is likely to have a major impact on production this year.

Though government data shows that more than 60 percent of the arable land in the district has irrigation facilities, most of the irrigation projects are not operational due to the lack of regular maintenance and drying up of water sources.

Ambika Siwakoti, a local farmer of Mechinagar, says that most of the corn crops in the village have dried up due to lack of water in the irrigational canal and severe drought. Furthermore, as Siwakoti said so far no representative of the government at any level has come to take stock of the situation of the maize plants.

According to Chetanath Bhandari, information officer of Krishi Knowledge Centre, maize was cultivate in 44,250 hectares of land in Jhapa in the financial year 2079-80, which has expanded in the current year.  The annual projection of maize production for the district is 250,000 metric tons.

The Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project has been providing subsidies for irrigation and equipment to the maize zone declared in Jhapa Rural Municipality. Jhapa rural municipality and Kankai municipality have been subsidizing 60 percent of the electricity tariff for irrigation to the farmers cultivating maize.

Agricultural expert Kharel says that the main reason for the long drought is the effect of climate change. Cob-less corn may be another problem that is likely in maize fields in the drought-affected areas.

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01-       Japan’s foreign minister returns home

Kathmandu, May 6: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan KAMIKAWA Yoko returned home last night after completing a daylong official visit to Nepal. This was her first visit to Nepal after being appointed as the foreign minister of Japan.

Foreign Secretary Sewa Lamsal bid farewell to her at the VVIP lounge of the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayankaji Shrestha hosted a dinner in honor of Foreign Minister KAMIKAWA.

During the visit, Japanese Foreign Minister KAMIKAWA met with President Ramchandra Poudel at Sheetal Niwas and with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ at Singha Durbar.

Following a bilateral meeting with her Nepali counterpart, KAMIKAWA also visited the historical Hanumandhoka palace square and bought some Nepali books at Mandala Book Point in Jamal.

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02-       Bagmati Government to bring Ordinance on education

Bagmati, May 6: Bagmati province government has decided to issue an ordinance to amend the Province Higher Education Act, 2078.

Minister of Internal Affairs and Law, Ganganarayan Shrestha, who is also the Spokesperson of the Provincial Government, shared that the meeting of the Provincial Council of Ministers held on Sunday decided to issue an ordinance to amend the Provincial Higher Education Act, 2078. He said that this decision was taken to amend Section 13 (5) of the Act.

Similarly, the cabinet has decided to provide relief support of one hundred thousand rupees each to the three families who lost their loved ones while trying to control the forest fire in Lalitpur and Ramechhap district. The support will be provided through the disaster management fund under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law.

A few days ago, three had people died while trying to control the forest fires in Lalitpur and Ramechhap districts of the province.

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03-       Five thousand hectares of forest under fire in Banke

Nepalgunj, May 6: An area of 5,133 hectares of various community forests and Chakla forest in Banke is currently under fire.

According to the District Forest Office, Banke, a total of 76 community forests and one Chakla Forest have been affected by fire. There are around 100 community forests in Banke.

Birendra Rokka, Assistant Forest Officer and Information Officer of the District Forest Office, said that the fire has been brought under control in most of the forests with the help of fire fighting vehicles supported by eight fire fighters.

To control the fire, 30 km of fire lines have been constructed in Chakla forest and 20 km in various community forests. The fire is reported to have started due to the long dry season without rainfall and also by the carelessness of people.

 Due to the fire, rabbits, snakes, different species of birds have died.

Meanwhile, 105 incidents of fire have occurred in various local levels of Banke. One person has died and six others were injured in the incidents, said Assistant Chief District Officer Jorasingh Majhi. A total of 104 cattle heads have perished in the fire incidents.

Property worth Rs 17.7 million was damaged in the fire incidents, that have occurred in Narainapur, Raptisonari, Janaki and Nepalgunj.

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04-       Thief steals and swallows 11.7 grams of gold

Panchthar, May 6: A man has been arrested after he was found to have swallowed golden jewelry weighing 1 tola or 11.7 grams that he had stolen in a failed robbery incident, Surendra Yongya,28 of Phidim municipality-1 was arrested by police red handed from the house of Bishnu Kumari Tamang of Phidim municipality-2. The incident took place in April 10 last month.

According to Sumit Kushwaha, Information Officer of the District Police Office, the family members of Bishnu Kumari informed police after Yongya was found stealing from a steel cupboard containing the gold jewelry. The police team arrived immediately and arrested him. He was arrested with Rs 15,000 in cash but nothing else in hand.

However, the family members found a jewelry weighing one tola of gold missing and alerted the police, after suspecting that Yongya may have swallowed it. An X-ray carried out at the District Hospital Phidim confirmed the presence of metal in Yongya’s stomach.

“Around 36 hours after the ingestion the golden jewelry was recovered from his faeces,” said information officer Kushwaha.

Meanwhile, after completing all the investigation related to the theft, the District Police Office Panchthar filed a case against Yongya in the District Court Panchthar. The district court ordered the release of the defendant Yongya on a bail of Rs 150,000 on May 5.

But after failing to deposit the bail amount, Yongya was sent to the District Jail Panchthar.

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