Irrigation Boosts Farmer Hopes in Kanchanpur

Kanchanpur. Local farmers in Pragati Tole of Shukla Phanta Municipality-10 are overjoyed with the arrival of irrigation facilities. The installation of a deep tube well has brought new hope for farming to farmers who have been facing irrigation shortages for years.

Pragati Tole farmer Parmananda Joshi appears very enthusiastic about the irrigation facility. "Previously, due to lack of irrigation, the yield was not satisfactory no matter how hard we worked in the fields," he said, "Now that a deep boring system has been installed in the fields, there is no problem with irrigation." According to him, the easy availability of water is expected to increase production.

To solve the long-standing irrigation problem of the farmers, a deep tube well has been installed with an investment of more than Rs 2.5 million through the initiative of the Sudurpashchim Province Government. The project was implemented by the Division Office of Water Resources and Irrigation through the budget allocated from the parliamentary development fund of Bahadur Singh Mahara, the province's Minister for Economic Affairs.

According to Ward Chairman Lal Bahadur Air, more than 50 farmers in Pragati Tole have directly benefited from the operation of the deep tube well. "Farmers repeatedly came to us with the irrigation problem," he said, "When we presented their demand to the minister, he allocated budget through the fund and brought the project into implementation."

According to him, it will now be possible to expand food crops, vegetables, and other cash crops in the fields that were left fallow due to lack of irrigation. This is expected to play an important role in increasing the income of local farmers.

Local farmer Harikrishna Chaudhary said that with the installation of the deep boring system, interest in commercial farming has increased. "Previously, due to water scarcity, we only grew vegetables and spring maize on a small plot of land," he said, "Even using an electric motor to draw water took hours for adequate irrigation, but now that problem has been resolved." According to him, the goal is now to earn a good income by doing commercial vegetable farming.

The capacity of the deep tube well is said to be able to irrigate about 60 bighas of land. Locals believe this will lead to a significant increase in agricultural production. Farmers mentioned that some infrastructure is still incomplete. According to local farmer Yashoda Bhatta, only the boring work has been completed so far, and the expansion of the necessary pipelines for water distribution is yet to be done. "We have requested the concerned bodies through the ward office to allocate the necessary budget for pipeline expansion in the upcoming budget," she said.

According to her, water can be supplied equally to all farmers only if the irrigation system is managed properly. Otherwise, she said, only some areas will benefit, and other farmers may continue to face problems.