Kathmandu: National Paddy Day being marked today. National Paddy Day is an annual festival in Nepal which marks the beginning of the rice planting season. It is celebrated on the 15th of Ashadh every year. The festival is also named Ropain Diwas, Dhan Diwas, and Ashadh Pandra.
Nepal started celebrating Asar 15 as National Paddy Day from 2005 as per a minister-level decision taken on December 14, 2004. This year’s slogan of the Paddy Day is “Utility of rice in biodiversity, support in import substitution.”
In the fiscal year 2021/22, paddy has been cultivated in an area of 1.47 million hectares of land and around 5.13 million tonnes of paddy was produced. Despite an increase of 26 per cent plantation area, production has declined by 8.74 per cent due to off-season rains in October last year.
A total of 5.621 million tonnes of paddy was produced in the fiscal year 2020/21. The paddy production of the current fiscal year 2021/22 is the lowest in the last five years.