Kathmandu, Aug. 5 -- Rapid unplanned urbanisation, crop diversification, and road construction are leading to diminishing paddy fields across the country, posing a significant threat to food security.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, paddy is expected to be transplanted on 1.37 million hectares this year, a sizeable reduction from last year's 1.55 million hectares.
This is the lowest paddy acreage in two-and-a-half decades, according to data compiled by the Post. In 2015, farmers transplanted paddy on only 1.36 million hectares as most of them stayed away from their fields when the country went into mourning for the thousands killed in the earthquake that year.
Between 1994 and 1995, the total area under paddy cu...