The total food production of Dadeldhura district has started to decline as the wild animals continue to destroy crops during harvesting time, according to the District Agricultural Office.

“The animals have been destroying about 45 to 55 percent of summer crops each year,” said Senior Agricultural Technician Tek Bahadur Bista. Mostly maize and paddy crops are destroyed in the mid-hill areas, he added.

“Around half of the maize and paddy cultivation has been destroyed this year as well,” said Bista.

According to the data of the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, wild boars are destroying around 4,000 hectares of maize and 6,200 hectares of paddy in Dadeldhura.

But it is the farmers that have to bear the brunt of the animals tearing down the crops.

“Hundreds of wild boars enter our farms at night and destroy our entire crops,” said Gorakh Bahadur Mali, a farmer in Bhaeshwor 4, adding that the wild boars destroyed his ready to harvest maize in around five ropanis of land last year. “Because of this, people have started to leave their land barren instead of growing crops.”

In the past, around 9,000 metric tonnes of maize and 13,000 metric tonnes of paddy were produced in the district. But the total production has been declining for the past five years, said officials of the agricultural office.

The district used to import around 1,200 metric tonnes of food grains in the past, but now the import of food has almost doubled as a result of the low production rate. Last year, 237 farmers registered applications of crops destruction in the district.  “In the current fiscal year, around 200 farmers have already registered complaints of crops destruction,” said Bista.