The villagers of Samrang Gewog in Samdrup Jongkhar are rejoicing over an abundant rice harvest this year. For some of them, this is the first time in fifteen years that they got to reap what they sowed.
It’s all thanks to a mega integrated livestock farm project in the gewog that provided the villagers with adequate water supply to irrigate their paddy fields.
Due to water shortage, some farmers in the gewog have not been able to grow rice for fifteen long years. But this year, the project enabled these farmers to cultivate rice again. “Some 30 acres of rice fields were left fallow until this year,” said Tarabir Bista, the Gup of Samrang Gewog.
“But this time, with the help of the project, the villagers were able to put to use all these rice fields,”
Indra Maya is among the group of farmers who gave up rice cultivation more than a decade ago due to unavailability of irrigation water. Wild elephants attacking their rice fields were another reason. “It feels so good to harvest rice after such a long time,” said Indra Maya.
“Now, we have enough water and the elephants also do not visit.”
“We have an irrigation channel but it was of no use without water,” said Genseh, another farmer. “But now the livestock farm project has solved all our water woes.”
Farmers intend to continue growing rice so long as water shortage does not become a problem again.
