Farmer Top Bahadur Kumal of Siranchowk rural municipality-4 ploughs his field with a tractor as he has abandoned tilling the land with oxen for the last seven years.

“Until a few years ago, farmers in my village used oxen for tilling lands. Now, only a few of them own oxen,” said Kumal.

Several farmers have also adopted tractors to till the farmlands as it saves time and cost, he said.

Villages like Daraudi, Bhusunda, Jarewar and Chefe Phanta – considered the pocket zone for paddy in the district – are now busy harvesting spring paddy or Chaite dhan. They are also preparing the land for transplanting summer paddy.

“It used to take several days to till the land using oxen. Now, a tractor does it in a single day,” he said.

Chameli Kumal of Palungtar Municipality-1 said that they hire tractors and pay Rs3,000 per hour to till the land.

Farmers pay Rs600 to use paddy planters and another Rs1,000 per day to hire labourers to level the farmland.

The locals, however, largely depend on the rotation of labour among themselves for farming.

“Villagers come to help me for paddy transplantation. I also help them,” said Kumal.

This year, farmers who own oxen to plough their land are worried because of the outbreak of lumpy skin disease.

Dhan Narayan Kumal, another farmer from Siranchowk-4, is upset as his ox is ill and he could not till his land.

“This year, my oxen got sick from lumpy skin disease at the peak paddy transplantation period.”

He said that all his neighbours have completed their land preparation. “I haven’t started yet.”

He said that the oxen of his neighbours, too, have fallen sick. Kumal, however, has made up his mind to hire a tractor.

The disease was first reported in Morang in June 2020.

Since then it has spread over 76 districts, infecting 682,080 cattle, according to the Department of Livestock Services. So far, 25,408 cattle have died due to lumpy skin disease.

Lumpy skin disease is an infectious disease in cattle caused by a virus of the family Poxviridae. The disease is characterised by a large fever, enlarged superficial lymph nodes and multiple nodules on the skin.

Sita Ram Shrestha from Gaurichhap in Sahid Lakhan Rural Municipality-6 is on time this year. Shrestha has already prepared the paddy seedlings for transplantation.

But last Wednesday, his ox died due to lumpy skin disease. “I haven’t tilled the land.”

Many farmers have abandoned keeping oxen. “Those who rear oxen are in a fix,” said Shrestha.

“I am clueless about how to complete the paddy transplantation this season.”

Parshu Ram Adhikari, chief of the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Gorkha, said that farm mechanisation has increased in the district.

“Big tractors are used in the bigger plots whereas in the small plots, farmers use hand tractors,” said Adhikari. “But oxen are still used in sloppy and narrow fields.”

According to Adhikari, paddy is transplanted on 12,920 hectares in Gorkha.

“Paddy has been transplanted on 10 percent of the farmland in Gorkha,” said Adhikari.

Farmers in the district use various varieties of paddy such as Savitri, Makwanpur-1, Ram Dhaan, Maharaja, Hardinath-1 and Sukka-3.