Adilabad geared up to tackle locust menace

Collector A Sridevasena on Wednesday convened a meeting and gave directions to officials of the departments of horticulture and agriculture research station over tackling the swarms of locust

Adilabad: Agriculture, horticulture and other department officials are prepared to tackle a possible invasion by locust swarms. They have devised multiple strategies to handle the attack.

Adilabad Joint Director of Agriculture Department M Asha Kumari told Telangana Today that Collector A Sridevasena on Wednesday convened a meeting and gave directions to officials of the departments of horticulture and agriculture research station over tackling the swarms of locust. Fortunately, there were no standing crops and wind direction was not towards the district as per information, she pointed out.

“A locust attack alert has already been sounded. As part of measures to overcome the menace, spraying of pesticides by fire engines will be carried out in places where the swarms arrive, besides making loud noise by beating steel plates for terrorising the bees and diverting them. A toll-free number 1800 120 3244 has been created for enabling farmers to report their grievances with regard to this problem,” she elaborated.

Authorities of Agriculture Department believe that the locust attack may not cause losses to farmers as all of the crops were harvested except for vegetables. They, however, alerted agriculture extension officers and sarpanches to be cautious about the swarms and told them to watch out for locust in the evenings. “We all are prepared to tackle the menace,” Asha Kumari added.

According to officials of Horticulture Department, the vegetable growers have come up with innovate techniques to prevent the locust attack. “The farmers are covering germinated plants with cups made of plastic. The cups generate sounds once the insects sit on a plant,” stated an official, adding, it was not a new menace for poly house farmers.

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