Nepal Celebrates National Paddy Day with Focus on Sustainable Rice Production and Climate Resilience

Nepal marks its 22nd National Paddy Day and Paddy Plantation Festival on Sunday with the theme 'Intensification in Rice Crops: Food Security and Self-Reliance'. The celebrations aim to promote sustainable rice production, modernize farming practices, and adopt climate-resilient technologies to address the country's rice deficit of around 1 million tonnes. This year's event highlights the importance of reducing global negative impacts of climate change by researching and developing climate-adapted technologies in rice cultivation.

Key Takeaways:

• The National Paddy Day is being celebrated nationwide with the theme 'Intensification in Rice Crops: Food Security and Self-Reliance', focusing on sustainable rice production, modern farming practices, and climate-resilient technologies.
• Nepal has a rice deficit of around 1 million tonnes, with the country importing a huge amount of rice and paddy seeds despite being an agrarian country.
• Over 140 varieties of rice have been registered by the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, and hybrid rice varieties are being developed to increase paddy production.
• Programmes are being implemented at all three levels of government to ensure the availability of seeds of suitable rice varieties, and efforts are being made to increase paddy production.
• Despite the government's efforts, the import of paddy and rice has been increasing over the years, with Nepal importing paddy and paddy seeds worth Rs. 38.94 billion by mid-June 2025.
• The ministry plans to prioritize the expansion of chaite paddy cultivation area and the implementation of productivity improvement programmes in wet rice, with the goal of making the country self-reliant in rice in the next two years.
• The chaite rice promotion programme is being implemented in 58 municipalities of 18 districts, and provincial bodies will also implement various programs for rice promotion from their own resources.
• Programs are being implemented to develop the entire value chain of rice through 21 rice zones and five superzones operated under the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernisation Project.
• Paddy plantation has completed in around 15.6% of the country's total paddy field so far, with varying levels of completion in different provinces.

Statistics:

• Nepal has a rice deficit of around 1 million tonnes.
• The country imports a huge amount of rice and paddy seeds despite being an agrarian country.
• Over 140 varieties of rice have been registered by the Nepal Agricultural Research Council.
• In the current fiscal year 2024/25, rice cultivation was carried out on an area of 1.42 million hectares of land, and 5.955 million tonnes of rice was produced in total.
• The average productivity was 4.19 tonnes per hectare.
• By mid-June 2025 of the current fiscal year, 753,000 tonnes of rice, paddy, and paddy seeds worth Rs. 38.94 billion were imported.
• Nepal imports rice every year, with a dependence on rice remaining high, especially for fine and aromatic varieties that are not widely produced locally.
• The budget statement for the upcoming fiscal year 2025/26 mentions the issue of making the country self-reliant in rice in the next two years.

Sources:

• Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development
• Prakash Kumar Sanjel, Director General at the Department of Agriculture
• Nepal Agricultural Research Council
• Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development
• Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernisation Project