Farmers in Palpa district are facing losses just as they prepare to harvest their rice crops, with a fungal disease known locally as kalopoke spreading through fields planted with various hybrid rice varieties.

The disease has been reported in much of the district, particularly in hybrid rice crops. Agricultural experts suspect the problem may have originated in infected seeds, raising concerns about seed quality and its impact on production.

For farmers, the outbreak is another blow to a crop already vulnerable to weather-related damage.

“Sometimes floods damage our rice crops; at other times, we have to contend with diseases like this,” said Buddhi Raj Basyal, a farmer from Tansen Municipality-9. “Rice is what we depend on for food throughout the year. Now that the crop has been affected by this disease, our harvest is likely to suffer.”

Most agro-vets in the district sell seeds of different hybrid rice varieties. Basyal said the sale of substandard seeds could be contributing to such problems.

Ram Prasad Shrestha, a farmer from Madiphant, said the disease had spread extensively through rice fields planted with different hybrid varieties available in the market.

Farmers have reported infections in several of Palpa’s major rice-growing areas, including Madiphant, Agahakhola, Kaseni, Jhadewa, Rampur, Purbakhola, Argali and Banstari. They estimate that the disease could reduce rice production by 15 to 20 percent across the district.

Farmers growing rice in Agahakhola, Rambha Rural Municipality-3, are among those affected. Gyan Bahadur Darlami said the outbreak had struck as the crop approached maturity and was nearly ready for harvesting.

Paddy fields in many parts of the district have been affected, farmers say. Padam Basyal, a farmer from Agahakhola in Mathagadhi Rural Municipality-1, said the disease had damaged crops that were ripening and ready for harvesting.

“The disease has damaged the rice as it ripens and reaches harvest time,” he said. “We are now worried about how to separate the affected rice. The crop has turned black.”

According to Basyal, hybrid rice varieties have suffered particularly severe damage.

Many farmers have switched to hybrid seeds in recent years after obtaining good harvests over the past two to three years. The outbreak has caused particular concern because it has struck as the rice crop approaches maturity, just weeks or days before farmers are due to harvest it.

The fungal disease appeared only after the rice plants had developed panicles, farmers said. They also observed that affected plants seemed to produce panicles slightly earlier than healthy ones.

Instead of developing normal grains, however, the affected panicles become filled with black fungal spores. The grains turn into black, powdery masses. Initially, the infected parts are covered by a thin membrane, agricultural technicians say. As the disease progresses, the membrane ruptures, releasing spores that can spread through the air.

Agricultural expert Santosh Kumar Chaudhary said infected seeds were a major potential source of the disease.

When contaminated seeds are sown, dormant disease-causing organisms can become active as the plants germinate and grow, he said. By the time the panicles emerge, the infection can produce conspicuous black fungal masses resembling charcoal.

For farmers who depend on their harvest for food throughout the year, the timing of the outbreak has added to their anxiety.

Til Maya Darlami, a farmer from Agahakhola in Mathagadhi Rural Municipality-1, said the disease had affected more than 25 percent of the rice crop in her fields.

“We are increasingly uncertain about how the disease has spread,” she said. “We suspect there may be a problem with the seeds because farmers have increasingly started planting different hybrid rice varieties.”

Farmers have called on seed suppliers, the Agriculture Knowledge Centre and agricultural technicians at local units to investigate the outbreak and determine its cause. They said the disease had appeared in some of the district’s most productive rice-growing areas, particularly in fields planted with hybrid varieties.

Chaudhary said the infection may have originated in contaminated seeds. The lack of a definitive treatment has left farmers struggling to contain the damage, he added.

Seeds should be treated with an appropriate fungicide and soaked before planting, but some farmers may have sown them directly without this precaution, potentially contributing to the problem, he said.

Spores can also spread to other areas through the air, he added, noting that hybrid rice crops appeared to have been particularly affected in the current outbreak.

According to the Directorate of Agriculture Development under the Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives, Palpa has 7,287 hectares of land suitable for rice cultivation.

Other major rice-producing areas include Argaliphant, Heklangphant, Rampurphant, Dobhan, Kachal, Arunkhola, the Kaligandaki river valley, Nisdi and the lowlands along the Tinau river.

Irrigation facilities are available for 3,934 hectares of farmland throughout the year, while seasonal irrigation can cover an additional area of 4,871 hectares, the directorate said. The district has about 36,000 hectares of land under various crops.