White grub infestation spreads to sugarcane crop in Pune

White grub, a voracious agriculture pest, just after wreaking havoc in the Vidarbha and Marathwada areas of Maharashtra has also afflicted about three,000 acres of sugarcane crop in the Pune district.

White grub (Holotrichia serrata) insect larvae, which in regional parlance is identified as humeni, has resurfaced in the Pune district. The pests eat at the roots of sugarcane, lowering the humidity and nutrient supply to the plant. This leads to the yellowing and wilting of leaves and brings about substantial hurt to the base of the shoot, leading to the dislodgement of the cane in the area.

Rutuja Much more, Agriculture Scientist and Complex Director at the Gujarat-based Institute of Soil and Plant Health and fitness, said that in the Pune district — primarily around the sugarcane belt of the Daund, Indapur and Baramati talukas — infestation is substantial. Speedy measures are wanted to be taken by the farmers for managing the distribute. In the talukas, six big sugar mills have noted the complications, she said.

Bajirao Sutar, MD of Karmayogi Shankarraoji Patil sugar manufacturing facility in Indapur, said that the surveys of the sugarcane fields are underway to assess the true hurt to the crop. Get the job done will commence to decrease the hurt, he said.

Effectivity of pesticides

Agriculture expert Milind Damle said that even though several chemical pesticides are accessible in the market for managing the white grub infestation, the farmers never use the correct form of h2o for pest management. Drinking water with a better PH benefit gets additional to the pesticide, leading to a rapid deterioration in the good quality of the pesticide. In outcome, the agrochemical becomes benign.

In Maharashtra, the h2o is alkaline with a pH benefit of eight, but for powerful use, the PH benefit should really be six, for which citric acid desires to be additional to the h2o. When h2o with the incorrect pH gets used, the pesticides get squandered and pests flourish, he said.

Pramod Magar, An entomologist at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Yavatmal district, said that the place of white grub in Maharashtra is raising. Earlier, it was only attacking sugarcane and groundnut crops now it also devours soybean, cotton and turmeric crops. Weather adjust is affecting the lifestyle cycle of bugs, he said.

The KVK is the farm science arm set up by ICAR for Yavatmal district underneath Dr. PanjabraoDeshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola.