Bhubaneswar: The Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) on Thursday launched a helpline number for pest-affected farmers to provide counselling and technical support to them.
The varsity has also recommended five new pesticides for next rabi and kharif season. The varsity said the situation of crops being affected by brown plant hopper pest was under control. It blamed the adverse climatic conditions for the outbreak of pest attack in the state.
"Soon after we got field report about pest attack, we have issued several advisories to the farmers and the state agriculture department. Besides, our scientists are visiting fields every day and counselling farmers on the pest attack and suggesting them accurate doses of pesticides," said OUAT vice-chancellor Surendranath Pasupalak.
He further said the situation was under control now. The university has also developed a brown plant hopper-resistant paddy variety "Hasanta" and also initiated a research project to study pesticide resistance in fields.
Over 1.78 lakh hectare paddy fields have been affected by pest attacks across the state.
Four farmers allegedly committed suicide following the crop loss, forcing the state government to announce compensation for the crop loss.
"We are eagerly waiting for the harvest of Hasanta paddy variety as we have found that it can successfully resist the pest while crops in the adjacent fields are attacked by it. It was sown as an experiment in some areas of Chikiti and Digapahandi blocks. We are planning to widely circulate this variety from next year," Pashupalak said.
The vice-chancellor has also alleged that farmers do not use the pesticides recommended by the university leading to the huge crop loss. Besides, there may be pesticide resistance in some places, for which the pest has not been able to attack those areas.
"We have started initiative to develop new pathological solutions for the pest," Pasupalak said. Samples of pesticides seized from various dealers have been sent to laboratory for tests, he said.
The varsity has also proposed crops, which can be developed in the pest-affected field immediately after cutting those.
