Sudden pest attack frustrates farmers

In the last one week, pest attack damaged thousands of acres of aman fields in the coastal islands of Patuakhali district. The photo was taken from Barobaishdia village in Rangabali upazila on Thursday.Photo: STAR

Pest attack on aman plants, around a month before ripening of the main food crop of the coastal region, has appeared as a menace to the farmers of coastal islands in Patuakhali district.
During the last one week, a kind of pest locally named shis kata leda poka attacked several thousand acres of aman fields, and it has led to drying of around one-third of the plants in Rangabali, Barabaishdia and Chotobaishdia unions under newly formed Rangabali upazila, said locals.
Earlier this season, growing aman plants in the area showed all signs of good yield but the sudden pest attack upsets the farmers' calculations.
"The pest makes holes just under the ears of paddy and the corn gets dried after two or three days. We had expected good yield of paddy but now we are frustrated due to the pest attack," said Rafiqul Islam, a farmer of Barabaishdia village under the upazila.
Alam Dafader, another farmer of the same village, who cultivated paddy on 20 acres of land, said, "The paddy will ripen only after one month but the pest appeared suddenly. Using insecticides in the field does not give that much result to save the corn."
Farmers store aman, the main paddy in the area, for using throughout the year, and so, failure to protect the food crop from the pest will bring untold sufferings, said Abdul Jabbar and Sona Mia of Char Ganga.
Most farmers cannot spray insecticides in their affected fields due to its high price, said Abdur Rob, a farmer of Koralia village in Chotobaishdia union.
When contacted, Md Rakib Hasan, upazila agriculture officer, said, "The pest locally known as shis kata leda poka widely attacked aman plants, especially the varieties cultivated on marshy and soft lands. We have suggested the farmers to use insecticides as soon as possible on all the paddy fields, whether or not it is attacked by the pest."