"Cracks appear on the field in Parsa district of Nepal in Mad..."

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24 July 2025

Cracks appear on the field in Parsa district of Nepal in Madhesh Province bordering India after a dry spell of drought in mid-monsoon on July 24, 2025. An emergency cabinet meeting on July 23, 2025, declares Nepal's Madhesh province a disaster crisis zone as severe drought hits the nation's breadbasket. The unusual absence of rain in the Southern plains of Nepal in mid-monsoon pushes the region into a state of crisis. The government makes the declaration under Sub-section 1 of Section 32 of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, 2017. Due to acute water shortages, farmers are unable to transplant paddy. The drought leaves seedbeds dry, and paddy saplings wither, sparking fears of an impending food shortage in Nepal's major rice-producing region. The scarcity of water during mid-monsoon in the Tarai, Nepal's food basket, threatens not only farmers' livelihoods but also the national economy.

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