Nepal celebrated the 22nd National Paddy Day on Sunday, June 29, with festive paddy transplantation events held across the country, signalling the full onset of the monsoon planting season.

As the nation’s staple food and most valuable agricultural commodity, paddy holds deep cultural and economic significance. In the last fiscal year, Nepali farmers harvested 5.72 million tonnes of paddy with an average yield of 3.98 tonnes per hectare. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development projected a record harvest of 5.95 million tonnes for the ongoing fiscal year, which ends on July 16.  

One of the main events was held in Khumaltar, Lalitpur, where Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Ramnath Adhikari joined farmers in the fields. The event was jointly organised by the Department of Agriculture, the Centre for Crop Development and Agro-Biodiversity Conservation, the National Farmers’ Commission, and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC).

According to the Department of Agriculture, paddy has been transplanted on 16 percent of the country’s total paddy fields so far.