Thrissur: Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has begun an exercise to formulate strategies for reviving the farming sector which suffered staggering damages in the recent floods.
Vice-chancellor Dr. R. Chandra Babu convened a meeting of top officials and heads of stations in main campus and prepared an action plan.
“Assessment of crop damages in each zone, awareness campaign on anticipated pests and disease infestations are the urgent steps to be initiated. A detailed advisory on resurrection of surviving crop, soil and plant health management and plant protection protocols will be publicised within a couple of days. Directors of Resea-rch and Extension has be-en asked to prepare a det-ailed plan for research and extension interventions. The plans will be hosted in KAU webite and shared wi-th Department of Agricu-lture for effective implementation,” Mr Chandra Babu said.
The vice-chancellor said that the KAU stations wou-ld adopt adjacent villages and aid their development.
“Scientists in all research stations and extension un-its will proactively involve in on-farm and off-farm rehabilitation in association with local communities. Production of planting materials and other inputs will be scaled up to meet the requirements as far as possible,” he added.
Interventions to redress silting and clay deposition, management of fungal diseases, downy mildew, pho-mopsis rot and cercospora leaf spot in vegetable crops, infections caused by Phytophthora in major cr-ops, leaf mite, sheath blig-ht and BLB in paddy, sigatoka leaf spot, panama wilt and rhizome rot in banana, threat of caterpillars and snails etc. are anticipated in the post flood scenario.
Detailed recommendations for managing these threats will be publicised by the directorate of rese-arch.
The directorate of extension has directed all the Krishi Vigyan Kendras in the state to map the det-ails of the village, watersheds and agro ecological zones, assess probable yie-ld loss, occurrence of diseases and pests and other consequences, circulate literature to sensitise people about climate change and its consequences and carry out campaigns of post flood management of crops, KAU officials said.
