Infestation of caterpillars on crops.
Highlights
Soybean sowing in 2.70 lakh hectares in Shajapur. Damage due to continuous rain and lack of sunlight. Farmers are advised to spray pesticides.
Shajapur. In the district, the outbreak of caterpillars on soybean has been seen for the past few days due to which the crops are getting affected. In the end of July and the first week of August, the crop was first damaged due to continuous heavy rains, now the caterpillars are biting the plants and their leaves. In some areas, the caterpillar infestation has increased so much that five to 10 percent of the crops in the region are getting affected.
When the rainy season started in Jamner, Akodia, Gulana, Polaykalan, Ugli, Salaslai, Maksi etc. areas of the district, the continuous rain caused damage and now that the weather is clear, caterpillar infestation is also being seen. The crop is 40 to 45 days old now. Soybean plants in the lower region have started turning yellow. Now that the weather is clear and the sun is out, the water has started draining out.
Soybean sowing in two lakh 70 thousand hectares
This year, soybean has been sown in two lakh seventy thousand hectares in the district. Due to lack of rain, the plants are growing but the crop is getting affected due to borer caterpillars and other insects. Farmers Hemraj, Rajaram Verma say that the crop is getting damaged due to borer caterpillars. If there is no heavy rain, the crop will get damaged.
Going to the fields and removing weeds by hand
Scientists gave advice
Agricultural scientists said that they are giving suggestions to the farmers of the region to save the crop including monitoring. There are measures to control the caterpillars, either there is heavy rain or bright sunshine, farmers should spray pesticides on time. Due to not spraying pesticides on time, there is an infestation of caterpillars in many areas.
Soybean flowers bloom
Flowers have bloomed in the early ripening varieties. Farmers are also spraying pesticides. If this is not controlled in time, there can be a lot of damage in the coming days. The crops are flourishing in the fields where there is no waterlogging, but the fields which are submerged due to rain are not getting any water.
The crops were submerged in water, due to which the plants of soybean, maize, urad, tuar and sesame crops started rotting along with the roots and the leaves started drying and turning yellow. Farmer Jamuna Prasad Vishwakarma said that his maize crop has become crooked. Soybean has started rotting due to water accumulation in the fields. There are two-three caterpillars in the corn cob.
This year, soybean has been sown in two lakh 70 thousand hectares. Teams of the Agriculture Department are visiting different areas of the region and monitoring the condition of crops and giving advice and suggestions to the farmers.
-KS Yadav, Deputy Director Agriculture, Shajapur