Hope for a bumper production of wheat by the farmers of Jhenidah district might be shattered due to severe attack of Blast and Rust diseases on the crop. According to sources, the fungicide which the farmers applied in their fields to check the attack of Blast and the Rust diseases did not work. As a result, standing wheat at the fields are poised to be damaged.
Farmers of Jhenaidha sadar and Shailakupa upazila informed, due to severe attack of the Blast disease, the leaves of wheat plant are drying up by turning yellow. With the attack of Blast diseases, there has also been an attack of the Rust virus with the same symptoms. It is learnt whenever a farmer enters into a wheat field attacked with Rust disease, his cloths turn reddish in colour.
Liakat Ali, Abul Kashem, Abbas Ali, Rafiuddin Mia and some other farmers of Chengakhali village of Ganna union in Jhenidah sadar upazila said all of their plots were affected either by blast or by rust massively.
Some farmers of Damukdia, Bijulia and Habibpur said immediate after the appearing of sheaf of wheat, leaves at the bottom turned yellow in colour looking as though the crop is matured for harvesting. Furthermore, the dress of the farmers also turn red in colour due to impact from rust attack.
They informed, they sprayed fungicides on the affected plots as advised by the officials of the department of agriculture extension (DAE) in due time. But no satisfactory result is yet to be found, they added. According to DAE Deputy Director office sources in Jhenidah, farmers in six upazilas have brought a total of 6,525 hectares of land under the wheat farming as against the DAE target for 3,400 hectares during the current season. A reduced price of DAP was mainly reason for increasing the wheat farming area double this year, they said.
DAE deputy Director Kripangshu Sekhar Biswas when contacted admitted the massive attack of blast and rust. He said the attack of rust was more than the blast. Comparatively high temperature during the milky stage and use of sub-standard seeds were mainly responsible for the attack.