Assam faces crisis as pests raid paddy fields

In an “unprecedented” agricultural crisis in Assam, rice-swarming caterpillars (spodoptera mauritia) have descended on farmlands, damaging the paddy crop spread over thousands of hectares.

The pests have, so far, affected a total of 17,418 hectares of farmland in ten districts, with Golaghat the worst hit with 6,671 hectares affected, followed by Dibrugarh with 5,000 hectares, Sivasagar with 2,800 hectares, and Jorhat with 1,200 hectares. The other affected districts are Barpeta, Nalbari, Kokrajhar, North Lakhimpur, Majuli, and Dhubri.

In his first reaction to the crisis, Assam agriculture minister Atul Bora suspended the Golaghat district agriculture officer on Tuesday, and served showcause notices to many others.

The pests raided paddy fields in a very short span of time and were spreading rapidly to more and more areas. Acknowledging the gravity of the situation, Mr Bora called it an “unprecedented epidemic” while announcing the spraying of pesticides on a war-footing to tide over the crisis.

Pointing out that such raids by rice swarming caterpillars on paddy fields was last reported in Assam in 1967, the agriculture minister said, “This is a crisis situation and something unprecedented in the past four decades. And the pest is spreading. In fact, the pest attack was reported only a couple of days back.” Mr Bora said that pesticides and spraying machines have been dispatched to all affected areas. He warned that any laxity on the part of agricultural officers would be taken seriously by the government.

Experts of the Assam Agricultural University have been consulted to effectively deal with the emerging crisis, Mr Bora said. They have already visited the affected areas, along with officials of the Agriculture department, to take stock of the situation. Efforts are on to control the pest attack by spreading urea, potash and other chemicals on the affected crops.