The continuous dry spell this monsoon has left the farmers in Paro worried. Usually by this time, their fields would be lush green with vegetables ready for harvest, but this time scant rainfall has left the fields parched and thirsty.
Tshering Dema, a farmer in Phuchekha village of Dogar Gewog, is watching helplessly as her chili saplings wilt under unrelenting heat.
“Last year around this time, we were busy working in our fields from morning till evening, but this time there is nothing to do. Nothing grows without rain,” she said.
“Actually, it is harvest time now but this time we couldn’t grow anything due to lack of rain,” Sangay, another villager, said.
The situation is so dire that it has sparked fears of food shortage.
“Let alone growing vegetable, we can’t even set our foot in the field because of the heat. If we die of food scarcity, it’s going to be this year,” Sangay added.
Temperatures soared up to 27 degrees in Paro this month and rainfall is expected to be below normal next months as well.
Farmers in other parts of Dogar Gewog are in the same boat.
“Unusually, we start receiving rain from March, but this year there was no rain even in June and July, so everything has dried up,” Ugyen, the Tshogpa of Goensakha, said.
In Tshongkha village, Tshogpa Rinzin says there is shortage of drinking water as well.
“The water sources are drying up and also people are using drinking water in their vegetable fields,” he said.
Tshogpa Rinzin also said cattle deaths have been reported. “There is no water and the grasses have dried out because of lack of rain. A few cattle have been found lying dead,” he said.
People in Dogar Gewog had even performed rituals to appease deities and weather gods, but their prayers have not been answered yet.
“We performed numerous age-old rituals that help to break the dry spell, but the rituals and the prayers haven’t worked this year,” Dogar Gup Lhab Tshering said.
They haven’t given up hopes though. Farmers are hoping rain would come soon and in abundance, breathing life into their parched fields.
