Salyan, Oct. 29 -- Unseasonal rain that started from Monday night has submerged harvest-ready paddy crops across Salyan, leaving farmers very worried about possible losses. Meteorologists have forecast more rain in the coming days, compounding fears that paddy left to dry in the fields could rot or sprout.

According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Salyan, around 7,000 hectares of land in Salyan, a hill district of Karnali province, are cultivated with paddy each year. Over half of this season's crop had already been harvested. But ripe paddy which has been reaped and left to dry in various fields of Sharada, Bagchaur and Bangad Kupinde municipalities, Tribeni, Kalimati, Siddhakumakh, Kumakh and Darma rural municipalities was drenc...