Added Ramnarayan Singh, a farmer from Janipur near Patna: 'This is a gift from nature.'

Bihar has recorded a 42 percent rainfall deficit so far this monsoon season, hitting the transplanting of paddy seedlings.

'Between June 1 and Aug 6, the state had received just 331.7 mm of rainfall against the average of 568.5 mm. This is a deficiency of 42 percent, and has resulted in 58 percent decline in paddy transplantation,' said an agriculture department official.

Bihar had targeted sowing of paddy over 8.77 million acres this year, but the crop could only be planted over 3.83 million acres so far.