Virudhunagar
The Department of Agriculture has come up with strategies to contain adverse impact of rains on paddy and horticulture crops.
In a statement, Collector J. Meghanath Reddy said since tender paddy crops were more prone to rotting, farmers should ensure that water did not stagnate in the field.
In case, plants got rotten, the farmers should replace them with seedlings of the same age. In case the paddy plants of higher age got damaged, plants from bigger roots should be taken and planted to replace them to maintain the right number of plants in the farm.
In order to compensate nitrogen deficiency in paddy crops that were submerged in water, a mixture of 22 kg of urea, 18 kg of gypsum and four kg of neem cake left overnight should be mixed with 17 kg of pottash and sprayed on the crop the next day after the rain stopped.
For foliar spray, two kg of urea should be mixed with one kg of zinc sulphate in 200 litres of water and sprayed during morning or evening.
The statement said cloudy weather condition could lead to leaf folder, shoot fly, brown plant hopper, gallmidge and blast attacks. Leaf folder could be contained by spraying 3% of neem oil neem seed slurry, 5% of flubendiamide 20 ml, cartap hydrochloride 400 grams, profenophos 400 ml mixed in 200 litres of water or 7 kg of carta hydrochloride mixed with 10 kg of sand.
Shoot fly’s presence could be identified with minor holes on blades or breaking of blades. It could be controlled by spraying one kg of pseudomonas fluorescens and one kg of sour curd mixed in 200 litres of water.
In case of blast, 20% cow dung slurry – prepared with 40 kg of cow dung mixed in 100 litres of water and kept over night and filtered – should be sprayed.
Growing of vegetable crops like shallot, tomato, brinjal and chilli on raised beds with drip irrigation with proper draining facility would help in reduction of crop loss during the monsoon, the Collector said.
The seedlings should be treated with two grams of tricoderma viride mixed in one litre of water before transplantation.
Pruning would help in saving horticulture crops like coconut, mango, sapotta, guava and amla from getting uprooted or breaking of branches in heavy winds. Banana plantains could be saved by providing additional support with wooden sticks.
The farmers could approach the Assistant Director (Horticulture) to get ₹25,000 subsidy per hectare for providing the support to plantains.
Proper draining of water could save flowering-plants. Two grams of tricoderma viride mixed in one litre of water should be sprayed to avoid fungal attack, the statement added.
