8 districts of Haryana get funds to control bollworm attack on bajra

Ravinder Saini

Mahendragarh, August 18

The outbreak of Helicoverpa armigera bollworm on their standing crop of bajra continues to haunt farmers in various districts of south Haryana, while the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has released a fund of Rs 17 lakh under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY- RAFTAAR) to its district offices towards arranging pesticides and hiring drone services for spraying pesticides.

“The fund has been released to eight districts, including Mahendragarh, Charkhi Dadri, Rewari, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Gurugram and Hisar. Mahendragarh and Charkhi Dadri are the worst-affected by bollworm, hence maximum grant of Rs 4 lakh each has been released to both districts. Besides, adjoining districts of Rewari, Jhajjar and Bhiwani have got Rs 2 lakh each, while Rs 1 lakh each has been provided to the remaining three districts,” said sources.

The sources maintained that the Deputy Director (Agriculture) posted in these districts had been asked to arrange pesticides from the sales counters of the HSDC, HAFED, HLRDC as per Ch. Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University’s advisory and as per the requirement. They have been asked to get drone services for spraying pesticides to control Helicoverpa armigera and other insects, pests and diseases in bajra crop.

As per an initial survey conducted by the Agriculture Department to assess the crop losses, the bollworm has hit standing crops of bajra spread over one lakh acres in Mahendragarh district and over 40,000 acres in Charkhi Dadri district. The crop loss up to 20 per cent has been assessed in both districts, while the affected farmers claim that the losses were double the official figure.

Balwant Saharan, Deputy Director at Mahendragarh/ Charkhi Dadri confirmed the receiving the funds.