A widespread attack of the ‘banana skipper’ pest at plantations across the State has put growers in distress.
Farm scientists, who are yet to identify ways to control the insect infestation, predict fruit weight loss at 30 per cent on account of the attack.
According to experts at the Horticultural University, Bagalkot, and University of Agricultural Sciences, Belagavi, the banana skipper ( Erionota thrax ), has already damaged thousands of acres of plantations in traditional crop-growing districts — around Mysuru region, Belgaum and the coastal belt.
The banana crop is cultivated in 53,000 hectares in Karnataka. The State produces 7.66 per cent (2.28 million tonnes) of the country’s produce. The minimum income from an acre of crop is around Rs. 2.5 lakh.
Owing to the infestation, the prices of banana leaves and the fruit itself has increased marginally in the retail market. While the cost of leaves per hundred increased from Rs. 200 to Rs. 350, the fruit (‘Elakki’) costs Rs. 70 a kg in Bengaluru.
Farm scientists have called for a vigil against this new and devastating pest that threatens to destroy banana crops. The infestation was first found in the Mysuru region about six months ago, and has now spread to Bagalkot and Koppal. Samples of the insect have been sent to the National Banana Research Centre, Trichy, said B.S. Harish, Assistant Professor, Horticultural University.
C.A. Viraktamath, Entomology Department, UAS-B, said the insect cuts the leaves at the edges and makes a series of cylindrical rolls. A heavy infestation could damage the whole banana leaf, leaving only the midrib intact.
Experts have advised farmers to manually remove the leaf rolls and burn them to kill the larvae.
Rangappa, a farmer, who grows the crop on an acre of land near Bengaluru, destroyed the insects by injecting neem oil with other chemicals at the bottom of the plant with a syringe.
