Chennai: Aiming to alleviate the conditions of farmers in 17 districts whose maize crop was affected by the Fall Army Worm infestation, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday announced a relief package of `186.25 crore to them.
The move, he said, would lessen the suffering of 2.93 lakh small and marginal farmers whose maize crop was affected by the worm infestation. Though maize was raised in 3.55 lakh hectares in 17 districts in the State including Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Namakkal, Tiruppur, Coimbatore and Ramanathapuram, in 2018, the crop in 2.21 hectares was affected due to the worm infestation.
Making a suo motu statement in the Assembly, the CM announced a total relief of Rs 186.25 crore under the State Disaster Relief Fund, for the affected farmers. The relief covered two different plantation types of Rs 13,500 per hectare and Rs Rs 7410 per hectare, respectively, he said.
Worm originally attacked maize crops in the US but spread to Africa in 2016 and later to Asia in 2018, affecting countries including India, Mr. Palaniswami said and added that he had directed the officials to swiftly assess the damage caused to the maize crops. He has also ordered for measures to prevent the infestation of the worm, besides creating awareness among farmers.
Maize is third most important crop:
Maize is the third most important cereal crop in the country after rice and wheat, and has been planted on about 74.34 lakh hectares as on August 10 last year.
The Fall Army Worm feeds on leaf, shoot, cob and almost every part of the plant. The pest laid 200 eggs in a cluster and multiplied every 15 days.
The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has constituted a task force to contain the damage caused by the Fall Army Worm, this year. Farmers have been advised to apply neem cake at 250 kg per ha besides use only biological agent-coated seeds and spray a neem-based pesticide on the seedlings. After few weeks, the farmers should repeat spraying the pesticides.
