A majority of farmers in Morang are unable to transplant rice seedlings as there has been insufficient rainfall to prepare the paddies.

Cracks have developed in the transplanted paddies as they are drying up in the lack of irrigation facilities or rain. Only a few farmers close to the East West Highway in the northern belt have planted rice.

In Morang, paddy is cultivated in 84,000 hectares of land. According to the District Agricultural Development Office (DADO), total plantation so far this year accounts for less than 40 percent.

DADO chief Manoj Yadav said this pace of progress in cultivation could result in a food shortage next year.

Farmers in Sijuwa, Itahara, Belbari, Pathari, Urlabari, Dangihat and Bahuni are worried that their fields have gone dry.

In Dhanusha, rice plantation has taken place only in 25 percent area. Farmers fear there could be a drought.

Pradeep Thakur, chief of the Dhanusha DADO, said there is no enough water in the Kamala, Jalad, Bighghi and Hardinath rivers that depend on rain. The Kamala Irrigation Project is unable to irrigate its total area of coverage, he said. People grow paddy in 65,540 hectares of land in Dhanusha.