It's ropain (paddy plantation) time along the banks of the Tadi and Likhu Khola in Nuwakot. Some images from yesterday. By the time the rest of the country gears up for ropain around June, these farmers would be ready to harvest this current crop of paddy.. and would be looking to plant the second crop too...
It was a heartening sight to see people engaged in ropain. For me it symbolised hope.. looking forward to the future harvest amidst the destruction left by the earthquake, which the people have yet to rise out from...
the fields flooded and readied for plantation
this field already has a 'stubble' of paddy
it is a hard, laborious work... whether doing it is done manually..
... using oxen...
(and in action...)
... or using some mechanical help...
...patchwork of readied fields and those that have seen ropain already...
... where patches of seedlings still remain...
... women bundling up the paddy seedlings for transplantation...
... while men dig, level, muddy and plough the fields, the women mainly transport the manure, and then plant the paddy.. families and neighbours help out in each others' fields...
.. taking rest after a hard day's work...
... brown mud fields will soon turn green... like the field at the bottom of the hill...
.. the water of Likhu Khola helps to irrigate the paddy fields... below the 'tar'...
.. and up on the tar .. sacks of freshly dug potatoes stand like sentinels...
...across the paddy fields... makeshift tin shelters surrounds a little village destroyed by the earthquake. Like other villages across the central hills, it is yet to rise from the rubble...
... a freshly planted paddy field next to the remains salvaged from an earthquake damaged building for me symbolises hope ...
