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Bihar cancels leaves of agriculture dept employees to combat locust threat
The Bihar government is bracing itself for a locust invasion after reports of the pests damaging crops in the bordering district of Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh.
With reports of swarms of desert locusts damaging plants and standing crops in the bordering Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, the agriculture department of Bihar has suspended leaves of the plant management division staff to help farmers foil the pest attack.
A centralised control room, headed by a joint director rank officer, has been set up in the agriculture directorate to ensure quick movement of locust response teams in the affected areas with pesticides and other tech support to control the damages.
Agriculture minister Prem Kumar on Saturday said that all agriculture department staff in the districts bordering UP had been put on alert, while a general advisory has been issued to all the districts in view of the locust invasion.
“Surveillance has been heightened in the districts bordering UP,” Kumar said.
The minister said that weekly leave or other leave of staff and officials of the plant management division had been suspended until further orders owing to the possibility of locust invasion. “The control room is keeping a close watch over the presence of locusts in the state with the help of district level offices and KVKs,” said the minister.
In an advisory issued to all the district magistrates, district agriculture officers and scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendras, the state agriculture director has directed the officials to sensitise the farmers about ways to keep the locust at bay.
“Beating of drums, steel plates or anything that makes loud noise is quite useful to prevent locusts from settling down in the field,” read the advisory.
The farmers have been told to keep tractors ready with mounted sprayers filled up with solutions of Chlorpyrifos, Fipronil, etc, in the event of attack. The agriculture department officials have also been directed to use fire engines for large-scale spraying of the pesticides.
Agricultural scientists believe an adult desert locust can consume roughly its own weight, about 2 gram food every day. A one square km swarm of 40 million locusts could eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people. This is based on a person eating an average of 2.3 kg of food per day.
Deputy director, agriculture, Anil Kumar Jha said that standing crops of moong, maize and vegetable could suffer extensive damages, if swarms of locusts entered Bihar. “Locusts settle down in a particular area in the evening and fly away in the morning. Such areas shall be identified for spraying of pesticides,” said Jha, adding that a toll-free number has also been operationalised to keep the officials in touch with farmers in case of the emergency.
Locust attacks have been reported from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra besides Uttar Pradesh.
