Submit your Article

People living in coastal areas have been told to stay out of the ocean and away from beaches after a powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake occurred off New Zealand's South Island, authorities said.

Residents in Southland and Fiordland should avoid sea areas because strong and irregular currents may pose a risk, according to the National Emergency Management Agency following Tuesday's earthquake, Alzajeera reported.
More than 4,700 individuals felt the quake, according to national seismic monitor Geonet, with New Zealand media reporting objects dropping and buildings swaying.

Farmers have complained that they were deprived of domestically produced hybrid seeds of maize.

The farmers shared this problem during the concluding session of a residential training on production of hybrid seeds and farming technology. The training was organized by the National Maize Research Program, Chitwan.

Khageshwori Budha Nepali attending the training from Dailekh district expressed worry over availability of imported seeds while lack of the locally produced seeds in market.

Locally produced maize seeds are better and resilient, but it is difficult to find in the market, she added. With the knowledge gained from this training, we would encourage the farmers to produce and utilize the domestic seeds of maize, she added. 

Similarly, Kusmakhar Kafle from Nawalparasi said it is essential to stress organic production of maize and other cereals by making the farmers commercial. Once the nationally produced seeds are ensured smooth marketing, it would be both productive and climate resilient. "Nepali seeds must be made sufficiently available," he added. 

Coordination Director at Nepal Agriculture Research Council, Bhanubhakta Pokharel, said production of hybrid seeds is essential within Nepal. Further publicity on it is equally important, he said, adding that this initiative could be forwarded with cooperation between the farmers' groups and local levels.

"Production of Nepali hybrid seeds requires adequate knowledge, which not only aims at boosting production but also utilizing land and making farming commercial," he observed. 

A total of 20 farmers from various districts attended the training where they were taught on producing hybrid maize seeds within the country.

The Inland Revenue Office in Chitwan has informed that the revenue collection was upped by 27 percent in the eight months of this fiscal year as compared to the same period last year. However, the office posted only 21.40 percent revenue collection, while only four months are left for the completion of the fiscal year.

Information officer at the office, Bimal Paudel, informed that in the eight months of this fiscal year, the office collected Rs 14.46 billion, while the same period last year recorded the revenue at Rs 11.91 billion.

The 10th national convention of the Press Chautari Nepal elected a 99-member new working committee under the chairmanship of Ganesh Pande.

Outgoing chairman Ganesh Basnet informed that Chetan Adhikari was elected the vice chairman, while Kripa Bhandari the vice chairwoman, Hira Man Lama the general secretary, Hari Ballav Nepal the deputy general secretary, and Bikram Luitel, Pradip Acharya, Naresh Bhandari and Bishnu Taruke the secretaries.

All of them were elected unopposed. Even the coordinators of account commission, discipline commission, policy and training commission, and election commission were elected unopposed by the convention, according to leader Bharat Khadka.

Total 923 representatives attended the convention.