WARANGAL/KHAMMAM/ADILABAD/NIZAMABAD: Paddy farmers across the state are battling pest-infected crops and many have given up the battle and set fire to the crop, incurring huge losses. In addition, the input price has increased. Both pesticides and seeds have become costly and the cost for using paddy cutting machines has also increased.
The crop has been affected by a pest called brown planthopper (BPH); agriculture scientists say unfavourable weather conditions have caused the pest to proliferate. There was heavy rainfall towards the end of the season, which left the standing crop damp, resulting in large-scale breeding of mosquitoes and other pests, especially the brown plant hopper.
Farmers are burning the pest-infected paddy in order to reduce losses and prevent the pest from spreading further.
Even on Thursday, three paddy farmers burnt their paddy crop in 50 acres to prevent spread of the pest to neighbouring fields in Chirrakunta village in Mandamarri mandal in Mancherial district.
50 per cent fall predicted in paddy yield due to pest attack
Paddy farmers Bapu and Ramaiah said that have failed to control the pest even after spending money to spray pesticide as directed by agriculture officials.
In Mancherial district, paddy farmer Madhukar from Chandaram village in Luxettipet mandal, cultivated paddy on six acres of land, but on Wednesday he burnt three acres that was attacked by BPH as a preventive measure to stop the pest from spreading to the remaining crop.
Agriculture department officials estimate a 50 per cent fall in the yield of paddy this kharif season due to the pest attack in both Mancherial and Nirmal districts.
In Khammam district, an estimated 75,000 tonnes of paddy production has been affected due to BPH, causing a loss of about Rs 110 crore in monetary terms.
Hemanth Kumar, an agricultural scientist, pointed out that BPH grows near the roots of the plant but the farmers spray pesticides on the top portion. Farmers can easily spray the pesticide near the roots if they follow the ‘alleyways system’ during cultivation.
Mr K. Ananthaiah, a farmer from Kallur, said he has never experienced such a massive insect attack in the past 30 years.
In addition to the effect of BPH, the farmers are hamstrung by the increase in the prices of agriculture products. In Warangal Rural district, the price to cut one acre of the crop using a paddy cutting machine has increased from Rs 2,000 last year to Rs 2,550 this year. Farmers are spending Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 per acre to cultivate one acre of crop. This year, farmers have spent more on buying and spraying pesticides.
When the produce makes it to the market, there is another shock in store: traders are quoting as little as Rs 1,200-Rs 1,300 per quintal because they claim there is more moisture content in the paddy.
Mr N. Srikar, an agriculture officer in Nizamabad, said that paddy pest is under Economic Threshold Level (ETL) in the district. (ETL is the pest density at which control measures should be applied to prevent the increasing pest population level from reaching the economic injury level).
Around 3,000 hectares of paddy has been infected with BPH, but, he said, there is no need to set fire to the paddy fields now, as the pest attack is under control at present.
Agriculture department secretary C. Parthasarathi, echoed this view and claims that the situation was under control due to the prevailing dry conditions.
“Heavy rains towards the end of the rabi season led to this situation. The wet and cold conditions were conducive to the breeding and spread of the pests. The situation has improved over the last two weeks due to dry weather conditions across the state.”
The department has sent teams of scientists and agriculture extension officers to all the affected districts. “Teams from the agriculture university and agriculture department are coordinating with farmers in affected districts and guiding them to save their crops from pests,” Mr Parthasarathi added.
This kharif season, paddy was sown on 19.38 lakh acres across the state.
The agriculture department estimates that paddy crop over an extent of 7 lakh acres has been affected by the pest attack. It claims that due to preventive measures taken and dry conditions prevailing later, crops over an extent of five lakh acres could be saved and are now free from pests. Another one lakh acres may also be saved by interventions. He also downplayed the destruction of the withered crop by farmers.
‘As per reports obtained from districts, the incidents of farmers burning crops do not exceed 50 acres. They are isolated incidents and should not be viewed as all farmers resorting to such acts as is being projected in some quarters. Last year, too, similar incidents were reported from Suryapet. When we rushed there, it was found that only one farmer had burnt five acres of crop,” Mr Parthasarathi said.
