Output of rice, one of major staple crops in Nepal, will go down 1.88 percent in the fiscal year 2005-06 in comparison with last fiscal year, Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) estimated Tuesday.

According to a preliminary report of NARC, rice output stood at 4,209,279 tons in fiscal year 2005-06, which will end on July 15, in contrast to 4,289,827 tons in the last fiscal 2004-05.

NARC experts noted that the decline may push the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate down in this current fiscal.

Bhola Man Singh Basnet of NARC attributed the reason for decline to "bad weather", and said that planting old seedlings also resulted in low output of rice and other crops including maize and finger millet.

Maize output in the current fiscal 2005-06 increased to 1,734, 417 tons, up from 1,716,042 tons in fiscal year 2004-05.

In fiscal year 2005-06, rice was planted on 1,549,447 hectares of land, maize on 850,947 hectares and finger millet on 261,673 hectares.

According to R P Sah, executive director of NARC, agriculture's contribution to GDP stands at 38.3 percent.

Source: Xinhua