Kanchanpur, Nov. 8 -- Farmer Mina Bhandari of Kanchanpur is deeply worried. It has been 160 days since she transplanted her paddy plants, and they have only started flowering when they should have reached maturity and been ready for harvesting in 125 days.

Bhandari established her plants in the first week of June using the Garima variety of paddy seeds. Introduced in Nepal five years ago, this hybrid paddy variety became popular among farmers because of its high yield ranging from 5.8 tonnes to 6.3 tonnes per hectare.

The rice grain is slender and consumers like it, leading to growing demand in the market. But this year, Garima was a massive letdown. In many districts, the rice plants only produced empty grains, according to Yubak Dhoj ...