Farmers in and around Coimbatore district have alleged that grasshoppers are causing enormous damage to crops in their farmlands and requested the Forest and Agriculture officials to initiate steps to prevent this.
Paddy, sugarcane, corn and millets are the major crops here. Due to the rainfall over the past few weeks, the number of grasshoppers has been on the rise. This is causing serious trouble to the farming community as they damage the crops in a bid to eat the same.
Farmers near Periyanaickenpalayam and Thudiyalur have raised corn over 2000 acres. S. Gokul a farmer of that area said, “I have cultivated corn in 5 acres. Due to grasshoppers my crops are getting damaged causing a loss of corn over 2 acres. This is the first time I am facing such an issue.”
Another farmer J Karthik near Thondamuthur alleged that not only grasshoppers but also reptiles like snakes are also causing damages to crops sometimes. “We are using pesticides to kill the grasshoppers and bacteria in crops but it will not give us a complete solution,” he said.
There are many ways to get rid of the grasshoppers easily, according to Dr.N.Senthilkumar, Scientist, Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree breeding, Government of India.
Speaking to SimpliCity he said “We can use Light trap to capture the grasshoppers. The next method is to clear the grasses in and around the farmlands so that grasshoppers will not come to the farmlands.”
He also added that while capturing the grasshoppers using light trap it will die and the dead grasshoppers can be used as manure for the crops because they are rich in protein.
Paddy, sugarcane, corn and millets are the major crops here. Due to the rainfall over the past few weeks, the number of grasshoppers has been on the rise. This is causing serious trouble to the farming community as they damage the crops in a bid to eat the same.
Farmers near Periyanaickenpalayam and Thudiyalur have raised corn over 2000 acres. S. Gokul a farmer of that area said, “I have cultivated corn in 5 acres. Due to grasshoppers my crops are getting damaged causing a loss of corn over 2 acres. This is the first time I am facing such an issue.”
Another farmer J Karthik near Thondamuthur alleged that not only grasshoppers but also reptiles like snakes are also causing damages to crops sometimes. “We are using pesticides to kill the grasshoppers and bacteria in crops but it will not give us a complete solution,” he said.
There are many ways to get rid of the grasshoppers easily, according to Dr.N.Senthilkumar, Scientist, Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree breeding, Government of India.
Speaking to SimpliCity he said “We can use Light trap to capture the grasshoppers. The next method is to clear the grasses in and around the farmlands so that grasshoppers will not come to the farmlands.”
He also added that while capturing the grasshoppers using light trap it will die and the dead grasshoppers can be used as manure for the crops because they are rich in protein.