Paddy is the main crop grown by the people of Zhichathang village under Senge Gewog in Sarpang. However, lack of irrigation water has forced the people to leave half of their land fallow. Our reporter, Phurba, who visited the Gewog recently says that the village has large tracts of paddy field but no water to cultivate paddy.
The villagers depend totally on the monsoon. The villagers said this was not the case three years ago when they had an irrigation channel. The channel was washed away by floods.
The villagers say if an irrigation channel is constructed once again it will benefit them as they can get water from the nearby Samartung river, whenever there is less rainfall.
“We could not carry out paddy cultivation. Whatever little we did, was with the help of monsoon,” said Kuenzang one of the villagers.
Some villagers cultivate millet in the paddy field rather than leaving the land fallow.
While Zhichathang village suffers an acute shortage of irrigation water, its neighbour, Labtsakha village has abundance of water. It does not have to depend on monsoon alone as the village is located in between Samartun river and Sisty river. The village gets its water from the two rivers during paddy cultivation season.
There are 36 households in Zhichathang village.
