Pest, leaf blight affect aman plants in Nilphamari
Farmers worried, agri officials say situation not so upsetting
A farmer gives a frustrated look at the diseased paddy plants on his field at Dakkhin Haroa village in Nilphamari Sadar upazila. Photo: STAR
Aman paddy plants in large areas of land in the district are attacked with pest and leaf blight disease, much to the worry of farmers. While farmers in the affected areas are struggling to protect their aman fields agriculture officials said the situation is 'not so alarming'. In the district a total of 1,15,450 hectares of land was brought under aman cultivation this year with a target to produce 2,32,777 tonnes of rice. Making good use of year's favourable weather and reasonable fertiliser price, farmers could prepare their lands, plant seedlings, weed and put fertiliser in time. And so, they were hopeful of a good harvest. But at a time when the ear of paddy is expected to come out, standing paddy plants, especially of BR-11 and Swarna varieties, have started turning yellowish, farmers said. Within a short time the affected paddy leaves dry up, leaving no hope of getting corns from them. A kind of harmful pest called brown plant hopper (BPH), locally known as 'current poka', is causing massive damage to their crops as it sucks the fluid of the stems, making the plants yellowish, they said. Spraying pesticide could do very little to save their paddy fields as the pest can do great harm overnight. Mostafizur Rahman, deputy director (DD) of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Nilphamari, said that paddy fields in some areas are turning yellowish mostly due to leaf blight caused as a result of shortage of chemical fertilisers like murate of potash (MOP) and sulpher. "The problem can be addressed quite easily by spraying MOP and sulpher in affected fields in prescribed dozes. Sometimes Voxal Super, a kind of nutrient, should also be sprayed in affected fields that are dry," he said, adding, “We are closely monitoring the situation. There is nothing to be worried as the situation is improving.” “Pest attack by BPH is not a matter of so much concern in the district as it is reported on negligible areas of land,” said Fazlul Haque, plant protection officer of DAE in Nilphamari. "On Wednesday night, our field level officials used light trap in paddy fields at 22 places of the district to detect presence of harmful insects. We found only 2% presence of BPH, which is not concerning,” he added. However, during this correspondent's visit to different paddy fields, farmers told of their worry about the pest attack. Rabindranath Roy of Titpara village said that he had planted paddy of BR-11 and Swarna variety in his three bighas of land (1 bigha = 30 decimal). But in the third week of Bangla month Ashwin (first week of October), those fields started turning yellowish. “I sprayed MOP and sulpher mixture following advice of local sub assistant agriculture officer but found no result. Then I sprayed pesticide to check BPH but it was too late. By this time paddy plants on a large area of my fields got damaged," he said. "As paddy plants on my field started turning yellowish, I cut the remaining green plants and took them to Baburhat market in bundles to sell as fodder,” Shahidul Islam, a farmer of Shalhati village in Dimla, said. Pijush Sarkar, a pesticide dealer of Sadar upazila said that many farmers coming to him with problems in paddy fields are confused about the nature of the attack as both leaf blight disease and BPH attack turn the green paddy fields yellowish. Most farmers complain to him of BPH attack, he said. "I am getting a number of calls from farmers to spray pesticide in their BPH affected paddy fields. To my observation 20% paddy fields in the area has been attacked with BPH," said Tohidul Islam, who sprays pesticide at Jhellapara village.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments