TURA: A Mobile Plant Health Camp cum Awareness Programme on Fall Army Worm (FAW), a notorious invasive pest of maize was organized by KVK, South Garo Hills for maize growers of different villages under Chokpot C&RD Block recently.
As per the KVK statement, Fall Army worm is native to tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Americas and was first reported in India from Karnataka in 2018 and north-eastern states in 2019. It causes serious leaf feeding damage as well as direct injury to the ear of the maize.
During the programme, Dr Tanya R Marak, SMS (Plant Protection) demonstrated the identification of the pest, damage caused by them and the management practices against the pest. Senior Scientist & Head, Dr A Habibhushan emphasized timely management of any pest and diseases of the crops while instructing the farmers to contact KVK or the nearest Agriculture or Horticulture department in order to timely and effectively manage the pest to reduce the loss caused due to the damage by FAW.
As part of the awareness programme, farming equipments like knapsack sprayer, neem oil, Beauveria and advisories on Management of Fall Army Worm in local dialect were distributed to the farmers.
