As temperatures soar across the Tarai, farmers in rural areas of Rautahat are busy harvesting and drying maize, turning village roads into makeshift drying grounds and creating growing concerns over road safety.

For local farmers, this is the busiest time of the year as they rush to bring home one of their most important seasonal crops. But instead of serving only vehicles, many blacktopped rural roads across the district are now covered with corn kernels and cobs spread out under the scorching sun.

In several areas, the roads appear less like transport routes and more like giant open-air courtyards for drying maize.

The situation has become particularly visible in the inner roads of Chandrapur, Gujara, Gadhimai, Brindaban and Katahariya municipalities.

Farmers have spread maize across both sides of the roads and, in some places, even along the middle of the streets, leaving only a narrow path for vehicles to pass through. Motorcyclists and drivers say travelling through these roads has become increasingly risky.

“It is hard to tell whether it is a road or a farmer’s courtyard,” said local resident Rupendra Patel. “My motorcycle almost slipped on the corn scattered across the road.”

According to Rajendra Thapa Magar, traffic police have been requesting farmers to remove maize from roads whenever such cases are found.

However, the practice continues widely in rural areas. In some locations, farmers have even placed large stones, wooden logs and bamboo poles in the middle of roads to protect the drying corn from being crushed by vehicles.

Farmers say they have little choice.

Dilip Bachhar, a farmer from Balchanpur, said the lack of adequate open space at home forces many families to use roads for drying crops.

“Our courtyards are too small to hold this much maize,” he said. “The corn must be properly dried before taking it to the market. The blacktopped roads become very hot under the sun, which helps dry the maize quickly. If the government had built shared drying spaces for farmers, we would not need to use the roads.”

He added that farmers are under pressure to dry maize quickly because moisture can cause fungal damage, while traders often refuse to pay fair prices for poorly dried crops.

As the maize harvest season peaks, the unusual use of public roads has highlighted both the lack of agricultural infrastructure in rural Nepal and the growing dangers faced by travellers on village roads.