Rautahat, Dec. 20 -- Every year, farmers across the country follow an unwritten agricultural calendar: paddy transplantation begins in June and must be completed by mid-August.

Last monsoon, however, farmers in Madhesh Province faced an acute drought right during the transplantation season. With little to no rainfall even in the monsoon months, it became impossible to transplant paddy on time in dry fields.

In Madhesh, known as Nepal's food basket, farmers who had access to small and large deep borewells around their fields managed to transplant paddy. Those without such access were forced to rely solely on rainwater.

Madhesh province has around 9,000 small and large deep borewells installed with government funding. Of these, nearly 1,...