SAMBALPUR: Paddy crop in large tracts of land has been damaged by Brown Plant Hopper (BPH) pest in Kayakud gram panchayat under Jujumura block of the district.
The harassed farmers on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Collector and met district agriculture officials seeking help in this regard.
While the pest has been damaging the crops in the area since 2017, the extent of damage seems to be much more this year, the farmers said and demanded that crop loss due to pest attack should be included under the Pradhan Mantri Phasal Bima Yojana.
In 2017, standing crop over 36,230 hectare (ha) was affected by BPH in kharif season in the district. Frustrated, some farmers had set their crop on fire. In 2018, though spread of BPH was within control, 140 ha of cropland in Jujumura was infested by the pest.
Farmers said though they have been using pesticides prescribed by the Agriculture Department, those seem to have no impact on the pest. District Agriculture Officer Rabinarayan Naik said the assistant agriculture officer and village level workers have been sent to the panchayat to assess crop damage.
The farmers have also been provided pesticides and informed about the application process.