Maize Army Worm Pest : Repulse the ‘army’ attack in time
Maize Pest Control: American Armyworm infestation is increasing on maize crop in entire Khandesh including Jalgaon district. If not remedied in time, the problem can become more serious with damage levels reaching 50 percent.
However, the agriculture department does not see any seriousness in this situation. In fact, everyone is ignoring this very dangerous insect from the beginning. This pest was first detected in Nigeria in 2016. After that, this insect made a lot of noise in the continent of Africa.
This insect first entered India from the continent of Asia in the continent of Africa. Traveling to Karnataka, Telangana in India, the American army worm came to our state during 2018. So, first of all, the quarantine department of our country could not prevent the entry of this insect into the country.
After that, the overall pest management system including the central and state agriculture departments could not stop the spread of this pest in the country. In both the years 2019 and 2020, the state witnessed an outbreak of this pest.
At that time temporary awareness was raised among the farmers regarding the identification and control of this pest. In the last two years, as the incidence in the state was a little less, everyone had forgotten about this pest.
This year, the American army worm has once again attacked the corn belt. Farmers are still not well informed about this pest, which entered the state about five years ago, and the agricultural system is not ready to move.
Farmers in affected areas are rightly demanding that this pest be declared a natural disaster given the cost of controlling the damage caused by the American armyworm. In the kharif season, the infestation of this pest is found mainly on the maize crop when it opens after rains.
Due to the continuous rains for the past few days, no inter-tillage (weeding, weeding) was done in the maize crop. Due to this, the growth of maize has been stunted and the infestation of weeds has increased. Armyworm infestations are considered highly fertile environments. The American armyworm is a omnivorous pest. Although the favorite food of this pest is maize, it can feed on about 80 crops.
As it mainly includes food grains and cash crops, along with the food security of the country, the supply of animal and bird feed, as well as industries like sugar and textiles may be in danger. In spite of this, everyone at all levels from the streets to Delhi is still clueless about this pest.
Even now, except for two or four chemical pesticides, there are not many options available to control this pest. Firstly awareness campaign should be conducted across the state regarding the identification, symptoms and preventive as well as control measures of this pest . While the experience of integrated pest management system for effective control of this pest is good in many countries, we also need to emphasize this system.
When providing integrated pest management for American armyworm, measures for common armyworms should not be imposed on farmers.
In the integrated management of this pest, there is a need for new research work on crop rotation, trap crops, friendly insects, lures in scented traps and botanical-biological-chemical pesticides.
Farmers also need to be told that collective control is the effective control of this pest. Only then will we be able to stop the American armyworm from attacking crops.
Source Link: https://www.agrowon.com/sampadkiya/army-worm-outbreak-on-maize-crop-in-khandesh
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