Bolangir: A four-member Central team Sunday visited several areas of this district after news of crop damage in hundreds of acres of paddy field by brown plant whooper (BPH), a pest locally known as ‘chakada’, was highlighted in the media.
The delegation visited Kudasingha, Nuapada and Sahajbahal areas Sunday and held discussions with the affected farmers. A few officials of agricultural department also accompanied the team.
Earlier, many affected farmers had approached the authorities concerned in the agriculture department, but their request for the supply of subsidised pesticides was not considered. This has led to resentment among the farmers.
While the farmers are apprehensive about crop damage, the agriculture department has failed to tackle the pest menace. A team of officials from the district agriculture department had paid a visit to the farmlands affected by the pest attack and confirmed that the crop has been damaged.
However, due to shortage of subsidised pesticide provided by the government, farmers were forced to buy it from the local market. A farmer said the pesticide he purchased from the market was not effective; on the other hand, the pest attack increased, he added.
The affected blocks in the district are Sadar and Saintala. The villages affected by the pest attack in Saintala block are: Ghunsar, Bhadra, Dunguripali, Karamtala, Belgain, Kansar and Ambapali while the affected villages in Sadar block are Sahjbahal and Kudasingha among others.
“I had expected a good yield this year. But, the brown plant hoppers have invaded my field and damaged my crop,” a farmer said, adding that he was now left with a loan burden.
Assistant agriculture officer Pramod Kumar Badapanda, who visited a few pest-affected paddy fields, said brown plant hoppers had started damaging the paddy crops.
“The pests are undoubtedly brown plant hoppers. There was a shortage of the government pesticide but now the stock has arrived and the farmers can get it from us,” Badapanda said.
The Central team would submit its report to the government soon, it was learnt.
Pest onslaught on paddy leaves farmers worried
Telkoi: Farmers in various parts of Telkoi block in Keonjhar district are a worried lot as their paddy crops continued to fall victim to pests.
The pest onslaught has been spreading across hectares of farmland in Telkoi, Oria, Shibnaryanapurgoda, Akula, Sirigida, Chhamunda, Binjbahal, Purujoda and Kalihata panchayats.
Farmers alleged that pests have already caused extensive damage to crops. Leaves of paddy plants get scorched due to a kind of disease caused by the insects. They have failed to curb the spread of the disease while the agriculture officials have cared little to supply pesticides to them, the farmers laminated.
Farmers pointed out that for want of good rainfall and lack of irrigation facilities, saving the paddy plants has been a difficult proposition.
They said officials have been supplying medicines for diseases locally known as Kandabindha, Chakada, and Sanda, but medicine is not available for this particular kind of pest.
Farmers Laxmidhar Pradhan, Bibhuti Sahu, Babulal Pradhan, Dilleswar Pradhan, Ramesh Biswal, Shanti Sahu, Balaram Patra, and Hemanta Patra demanded that the agriculture department immediately provide them remedy for the disease that continued to spread to newer areas.
Farmer Ramesh Biswal said, “The department has been apprised of the leaf-scorching disease. Officials prescribe medicines that are not supplied freely.”
Agriculture officer Manjubala Nayak said the medicines for leaf-scorching disease have not been supplied while some other medicines have been provided to farmers.
PNN