Farmer Ratan Rawat of Chandannath Municipality, Jumla, diversified his farming from traditional paddy cultivation to cash crops like apples and vegetables.

He initially used to cultivate paddy only. Rawat is now reducing the paddy cultivation area and increasing the area for apples and vegetables.

“I used to transplant paddy on my 10 katthas of land. But for the last four years, I have been cultivating apples and vegetables,” he said. His paddy acreage has now been reduced to six katthas.

Most of the farmers in the municipality, engaged in paddy farming, have now switched to cash crops.

Khadak Budha, another farmer from the same village, has reduced the paddy field by half. He said he used to produce 30 sacks of paddy until a few years ago, but his output declined to 15 sacks.

With the good income from apples and vegetables, Budha reduced the paddy acreage.

“Apple is in demand,” said Rawat. Though he had no intention to cut on paddy cultivation, as apple farming started generating good income, he gradually switched to apple production.

In the highlands of mid-western Nepal, commercial vegetable and apple farming thrived after paddy started to yield little income and there was a shortage of farmhands. The rise in disease also forced people to switch to cash crops from cereal production.

“Vegetable farming generates better income than growing paddy. That’s why farmers shifted to vegetable farming,” said Rawat.

Farmers have focused on the production of vegetable seeds as well.

Compared to last year, paddy production has declined in Karnali this year.

In the current fiscal year, 123,795 tonnes of paddy was produced on 39,763 hectares compared to 124,969 tonnes in the last fiscal year.

In Karnali Province, paddy is mainly produced in Surkhet, Salyan, Dailekh and West Rukum.

Jajarkot, Jumla, and Kalikot are also some areas where paddy is cultivated.

The highest elevation at 3,050 metres is Chhumjul of Jumla, a record altitude where rice is cultivated in Nepal.

According to the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, Surkhet produced 52,904 tonnes of paddy, more than the sum of Dailekh’s 25,120 tonnes and Salyan’s 23,630 tonnes.

According to the statistics for the past five years, paddy production in Karnali has been continuously declining. In the fiscal year 2019-20, paddy output in Karnali was 151,805 tonnes, which dropped to 137,165 tonnes in 2020-21. The output dropped to 125, 143 tonnes in 2021-22 and rose slightly to 128,000 tonnes in 2022-23.

Out of 299,339 hectares of arable land in Karnali, farming is done on 216,880 hectares. Paddy covers 45,468 hectares.

According to the statistics, paddy in Surkhet covers 12,679 hectares, followed by 8,313 hectares in Dailekh and 7,078 hectares in Salyan. Similarly, in West Rukum, paddy is cultivated on 3,048 hectares, followed by Kalikot with 3,081 hectares and Jajarkot with 3,063 hectares.

Purna Bahadur Thapa, the ministry's information officer, said that output and field of paddy both have declined sharply. “The paddy production area has shrunk, mainly in Surkhet, Dailekh, Jajarkot and Salyan.”

Paddy production has dropped due to a lack of irrigation. The rainfall damages irrigation canals in the hilly district. “Lack of rainfall was also a problem. If the rainfall gets delayed, it creates difficulties sowing the seeds. As a result, paddy transplantation is not completed on time,” said Thapa. “The delay in paddy transplantation impacts production.”

The provincial government data shows that out of the total irrigable land in Karnali, only 35.21 percent is covered by irrigation facilities. The round-the-year irrigation facility is provided only on 38,338 hectares, while 30,302 hectares are partially irrigated.

Thapa said that the farmers also face the problem of insufficient seeds.

As farmers have applied new hybrid seeds, new diseases have emerged. The increasing urban area also reduced production and farming land.