HUBLI: After the successful arrival of monsoon in the district, the farmers are now facing trouble as snails have attacked the crops in the fields in the radius of 20 kilometre around the city, causing huge losses.
The officials of Agriculture Department have now started looking at scientists to control the damage, which they say was caused by intermediate dry spells even though the monsoon hit the region at the right time. Jubilant farmers started agricultural activities such as ploughing and sowing seeds in full scale and expected better rain in days to come, which did not happen. The crops, still in the formative stages, were affected by snails. Hippunerale crop is the most affected, they say.
The villages largely affected by the pests are Mavanoor, Katnur and Girial and fields outside the Hubli city.
While the farmers are using all kinds of pesticides to control the spread of the pest, the snails are staying put by retreating into their shells. As a result, the farmers are now forced to pick them by hand.
The farmers say that while snails do affect the crops every year, they had never seen snails in such large numbers. Due to a fast reproductive cycle, they have multiplied at an alarming rate and are now threatening to devastate the fields, which, they claim, would take them hardly 3-4 days now. Govind Salunke, a resident of Giriyal village, said the snails are eating up Hippunerale, cow pea, maize, sunflower, soybean and even attacked the guava, coconut and horticulture crops.
Agriculture joint director Ganesh Naik told that the snails are usually found in Malnad areas where humidity is more.