Climate change is bad for everyone, and small farmers in the developing countries suffer the most from it. It’s no different in Nepal.

Increasing effects of extreme climate change have stymied growth in the farm sector that has significantly affected the earnings of paddy farmers, leading experts to stress the need to increase their access to climate stress-tolerant rice varieties.

Speakers at a workshop of a USAID-funded project entitled Accelerating the Adoption of Stress-Tolerant Rice Varieties by Smallholder Farmers in Nepal and Cambodia held on Wednesday said that applying varieties that are resistant to drought and can withstand floods could help Nepali farmers earn better incomes and increase the country’s food grain productivity.

Farmers are unaware of stress-tolerant varieties due to lack of proper dissemination of information, and this has put their livelihoods in danger.

“Nepal could attain sufficiency in climate-smart paddy seeds within four-five years if farmers are well educated to apply them,” said Bhaba Prasad Tripathi, senior associate scientist of International Rice Research Institute Nepal (IRRI-Nepal).

“Farmers usually produce and exchange their seeds within their own community. Due to this practice, we can increase the supply and production of these varieties if the farmers are properly educated,” he said.

Nepal is implementing a $3-million project on stress-tolerant rice varieties in a bid to reduce poverty and hunger, and increase food and income security for resource-poor farm households by providing and distributing high-yield rice varieties that are tolerant to climate stresses. The three-year project was implemented in October 2014.  

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been providing financial help to IRRI to develop drought-tolerant rice varieties for Nepal, India, Bangladesh and some African countries. The project plans to double rice production in 10 years.

“Under the project, we have targeted reaching 100,000 farmers within two-three years,” Tripathi said. The project has been implemented in 20 districts in the Western, Mid-Western and the Far Western regions. In addition, the project has been extended to two Tarai districts, Jhapa and Morang, at the request of the government.  

Currently, eight drought-tolerant varieties—Sukhadhan 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, Tarahara 1 and Hardinath 2—and two submergence-tolerant rice varieties—Swarna Sub-1 and Sabha Mahasuri Sub-1- have been released by the government with IRRI support.

Sukhadhan 1, 2 and 3, Sabha Mahasuri Sub-1 and Swarna Sub-1 were released in 2011. The government had approved Sukhadhan 4, 5 and 6 last year.

These varieties, also known as “climate change-ready rice”, can tolerate drought for up to one and a half months. The plant can also grow under water-deficiency stresses.

They have been recommended for the Tarai, inner Tarai and river basin areas. Among these three, Sukhha 6 has the ability to re-grow even two weeks after submergence. These varieties have a yield more than four times higher compared to traditional seeds.

According to Tripathi, 250 tonnes of these seed varieties were supplied this year and 500 tonnes have been planned for the next season.

Uttam Kumar Bhattarai, secretary of the Ministry of Agricultural Development, said that major challenges to Nepal’s agriculture are abiotic stress such as drought, submergence and rising temperatures due to climate change.

According to him, 30 percent of the paddy areas in Nepal are prone to drought, while 10 percent of the fields are affected by submergence. “As 27 out of the country’s 75 districts are facing a food deficit, these varieties could increase productivity and are key to addressing food insecurity.”