Farmers hit hard by infestation assured of DA help

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has directed regional officials to provide farmers with seeds and training in pest management amid reports of crop diseases and pest infestations arising every now and then. In the latest report of pest infestation and crop diseases reaching the DA national office, the regional director for Western Visayas Larry Nacionales said 405 hectares of rice crops have been affected by rats and the tungro virus in Aklan province. In 2008, palay production in Aklan went down by 8.7 percent from 141,574 metric tons (MT) in 2007 to only 129,258 MT last year. Typhoons and pest infestations, along with the reduction in the area harvested by 2,631 hectares, caused the decline, said Nacionales. William Castillo, officer-in-charge of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), said the Aklan provincial government is extending assistance to rice farmers to contain the pest infestation. Yap urged Aklan farmers to seek the help of municipal agriculture officers who will help them adopt better crop production and pest management practices. He said an information campaign and training under the Farmers' Field School and Palay Check program had already been undertaken in a bid to minimize the effects of the infestation in Aklan’s palay-producing municipalities. “The DA will train the farmers how to program their planting and harvest schedule," he added. “We also will distribute better seed varieties in the next planting season to control the infestation." According to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), tungro is caused by the rice tungro bacciliform virus (RTSV). It is characterized by spotted leaves, mild to severe stunting, mild yellowing of leaves, and yellow to orange leaves of the rice plants. DA officials said the only means of transmission of the tungro virus is through the green leafhopper that feeds on young and susceptible rice plants. As for rats, DA officials called for community action in eradicating them and they can be hunted before the seeding of the rice crops. Rats are aggregated in habitats along margins of the cropped fields where they are killed Earlier, Yap dispatched a team of plant experts to Bulacan and Nueva Ecija to assess the situation in pest-affected mango farms and provide aid to farmers in these provinces. A group led by Dr. Hernani Golez, a resident mango expert of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), conducted tests in the two provinces to verify the type of pests that have infested mango farms. Golez said the pest infestation has been reported in mango orchards across the country, “but the problem is prevalent in areas where trees are not provided good management." In his report to Yap, which was coursed through Director Rene Rafael Espino of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani-High Value Commercial Crops (GMA-HVCC) Program, Golez said tests showed that the pest affecting the mango farms in Bulacan is the Cecid Fly or Gall Midge. Young and old fruits show circular black or brown scabby lesions on the fruit peel, Golez said. In the advanced stage of development, the circular lesions increase in size with immature insects present upon dissection, he added. While the damage is superficial, young affected fruits fall to the ground while the quality of mature fruits are affected at harvest, Golez noted. Golez said the team has advised farmers in Bulacan to spray insecticides such as Sevin, Decis and Stingray and other chemicals approved by the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) in the afternoons because these pests feed during night time and to prune and burn infested leaves. The DA had also swiftly responded to reports of rat infestations in Nueva Ecija’s palay-growing areas by implementing timely intervention measures in the affected farms. In a report to Yap, DA regional executive director Redentor Gatus said the Department’s Regional Field Unit (RFU) in Central Luzon, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) and Municipal Agricultural Offices in Nueva Ecija (MAO) had jointly carried out a massive rat poisoning campaign — dubbed “Oplan Pain" using zinc phosphide, a rat poisoning agent - in the towns of Talavera and Sta. Rosa to address the infestation. Contrary to earlier reports concerning the supposed rampant attacks of rats in the town of Talavera, Gatus said data gathered by the DA-RFU and the MAO in Central Luzon show that the influx of rats is not as widespread as had been implied. According to Aida Santos, an agricultural technician of Talavera, community effort is essential to eradicate rats, which could be done through proper sanitation (removing all straw piles in the paddies after harvest), synchronous planting (planting within the month of the regular planting time) and synchronous extermination of the rodents through massive application of acute rodenticide. Besides providing farmers with zinc phosphide, Gatus said that agriculture experts of the DA also educated them on the various procedures on how to eliminate rats. - GMANews.TV