Complaining about damage to the maize crop due to pest attack, a large number of farmers have sought suitable compensation from the government.

Meanwhile, officials of the Agriculture Department has confirmed that nearly 30 per cent of the maize crop in the district has been affected due to the attack of fall armyworm.

A total of 21,000 hectares of land is under the maize crop in the district.

Sandeep Kumar, sarpanch of Jandla village near Anandpur Sahib, said farmers in his village had sown maize on nearly 100 acres. “The crop, however, was damaged due to pest attack despite spraying pesticide repeatedly,” he added.

Manohar Lal, another farmer from the village, said he had sown maize on three canals of land. When he noticed pests, he got a pesticide from the market and sprayed it thrice but still a major portion of his crop had been damaged, he claimed.

Similarly, Bir Singh, Gurnaib Singh, Rupinder Singh and Amandeep Singh, farmers from the Nurpur Bedi area, claimed severe damaged to their crops and demanded suitable compensation from the government. Last year too, a similar pest attack was witnessed in the area, but it was controlled immediately, the farmers said.

“The affected farmers would stage a protest at the Mini-Secretariat on Wednesday,” they added.

According to the experts of the Punjab Agricultural University, fall armyworm was reported to attack the maize crop in the state towards the end of Kharif-2019 season. Dr Harpreet Kaur Cheema, entomologist (forage), said: “Since maize is grown almost round the year, the management of this new invasive pest should be done at the first appearance to minimise the increase of pest in successive generations.”

Meanwhile, Ropar Chief Agriculture Officer Avtar Singh said: “To control this pest, coragen, emamectin benzoate and fame pesticides have been recommended. Moreover, for effective control, directing the spray nozzle towards the whorl is a must.”

Source - https://www.tribuneindia.com