Villages in Baitadi have little sign of Dashain festivity this year, with farmers fully occupied in harvesting crops.

This is the season when maize, millet, paddy, buckwheat and soybean ripen in the hilly fields, while in the lowlands, millet and paddy transplanted in June are ready for harvest. For locals, the urgency of bringing in the harvest outweighs the excitement of the festival.

“Dashain celebrations last only two or three days, but if we fail to collect our crops in time, we will have to depend on the market for food throughout the year,” said Jantara Bhatt, a farmer from ward 5 of Melauli Municipality. She said the family had already husked and stored maize and had started cutting millet and buckwheat. “If it rains, the ripe crops will rot, so we are working without rest,” she added.

In Shivanath Rural Municipality, too, farmers said they do not feel the festival atmosphere. “We have both hillside and lowland fields. Maize, millet and paddy are all ready for harvest at once. For us, Dashain means being able to collect the crops safely,” said Madan Saud of ward 2.

Other farmers are also preparing land for the next season. Laxman Chand said he had just finished threshing paddy and was now ploughing the fields for wheat. “If we spend time celebrating Dashain, it will be too late to prepare the fields. We have no leisure at all,” he said.

According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Baitadi has 31,485 hectares of cultivable land, of which 25,700 hectares were farmed last year. The district produced 13,838 metric tonnes of paddy, 18,584 metric tonnes of maize, 485 metric tonnes of millet and 23,931 metric tonnes of wheat, among others.

Farmers say that while Dashain may be a festival for the well-off, their celebration lies in being able to harvest their crops in time without loss.