Pests ruin paddy on 89,000 ha

DROUGHT conditions triggered a pestattack in 12 paddy growing districts ofOrissa. The swarming caterpillars(Spodoptera mauritia) ruined crops on89,000 hectares (ha) of the four millionha under paddy cultivation in the state.

Sambalpur district was the worstaffected; paddy crops on nearly 33,000ha were destroyed by the pest, calledleda poka in Orissa. In Malkangiridistrict, farms were also attacked bystem borer pests and bacterial leaf blightdisease.

"This year June was dry. There werea few days of heavy rain in July and aprolonged drought after that. Thedrought suits the pests. The problem ispronounced in areas that do not getirrigation water," said Saroj Mohanty,an activist working with farmers inwestern Orissa.

Ashok Pradhan, a farmer inSambalpur district who harvested 18.75quintals of rice last year, said if there areno rains his yields would be nowherenear what he harvested last year. Only apart of the 7.3 ha he owns is irrigated.To help the farmers tide over thecrisis, the government announced pesticidesubsidies and spent Rs 1.44 croreon it. But farmers said the help is insufficient."In some places only 10 litres ofpesticide was given for the whole villageand one sprayer allocated to one panchayatcomprising 10-15 villages. Theshortage will create more problems,"said Jagannath Chatterjee of the nonprofitLiving Farms. Balaram Bhoi, a 42-year-old farmer in Sambalpur district,consumed the pesticide he was to sprayin his farms. A debt of Rs 35,000 drovehim to suicide. Mohanty said there arereports of farmers migrating fromneighbouring Jharsuguda district toRaipur in Chhattisgarh as their cropshave been destroyed. "There is no workunder the National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme this time of the year,so more people are likely to migrate tocities," he said.

Officials said there were no reportsof farmers' distress. They said the pestproblem has been controlled in 70,000ha and that remaining farmland wherepaddy crop was lost will be used to growpulses and oilseeds. The extent of damageto paddy will be assessed after harvesting,they added.

"What we know is that farmers haveavailed of the subsidies and the problemis almost over," said Babaji Giri, additionaldirector of state agriculturedepartment