Pest attack at the time of crop maturity is worrying jute farmers in different parts of the country, reports reaching Dhaka said.
The attack of jute hair-cutter worms has been experienced in many districts just about two weeks before harvesting, Moshleh Uddin Faruque, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (cash crop wing), said.
The DAE official said that the pest starts eating from the leaves and finally gets into the stems, affecting the plant and its fibres.
Farmers and agriculture department officials blamed bad weather, incessant rainfall in recent days, inadequate sunshine and water stagnancy in jute fields as the reasons of the pest attack.
The attack this year would not affect much as the plants were quite grown up and the farmers with the help of the DAE field level officials had taken necessary measures to control the attack.
DAE has already published leaflets about controlling the pest and distributed those among the farmers to make them aware of how to fight the pest attack.
Farmers, however, said the 'golden' fibre's quality would be affected to a great extent due to the worm attack at this stage of harvesting. The production cost would, on the other hand, increase as they would need pesticide and more manpower to control the pests.
'I never saw such kind of pest attack earlier on my fields. Pests are eating the leaves and affecting the plants' growth and becoming yellowish,' farmer Sheikh Omor Ali of village Kabirpur in Faridpur Sadar upazila told New Age.
He said that nearly 50 percent of standing jute in his area was affected by the pest attack.
Another farmer, Isa Khan of Nabasiddinpara under Goalando upazila in Rajbari district said that they were encouraged to cultivate jute as last year they got better price and had high demand. But the pest attack, he feared, would reduce the production to almost half this year. He cultivated jute on 3.3 acres of land this year.
Farmers from different parts of the country said they were advised to collect pests and kill them by using solution of one liter water and 50 milliliter kerosene.
If anyone wants to use pesticides, they were advised to use Diazinon 60 EC, Emamactin Benzoate 5 percent SG, Lmba Cylothrin 2.5 EC and Carbaryl 85 WP, DAE officials said.
Jute cultivation has nearly doubled this year from that of 2010, said DAE officials in Dhaka, adding that around 8.33 lakh hectares of land were brought under jute cultivation this year.
DAE estimates this year's total yield of raw jute at 88.30 lakh bales, based on an assumed average production of 10.6 bales per hectare.
The jute sector in fiscal 2009-10 logged 76 per cent higher export earnings year-on-year at $736 million, equivalent to Tk 5,225 crore approximately, and in the first 11 months of 2010-11 fiscal year, the country has earned $1030.57 million from export of jute and jute goods, posting a 42.04 per cent year-on-year rise.
Source : New Age
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