Kathmandu. After the continuous monsoon rains, the pace of paddy planting in Nepal has increased rapidly. This year, due to slow onset of monsoon in Nepal, sowing was very less compared to last year. Although the monsoon was active late, after the middle of June, the pace of paddy planting increased as the monsoon system became fully active across the country.

Till the second week of June, due to lack of sufficient rainfall and lack of irrigation facilities, even half of the total arable land could not be planted. However, after the 15th of June, the monsoon rains started widely across the country and before the first week of July passed, the pace of planting became much faster than expected, according to the Department of Agriculture.