Kanchanpur, 21 July An outbreak of gabaro insects has appeared in the paddy crops planted in the fields by the farmers of Kanchanpur. In the paddy field, weevils have started to damage the pods by eating them. The problem of Gabaro disease has appeared most frequently in Krishnapur and Shuklaphanta municipalities. Gopi Saud, a farmer in Krishnapur municipality 1, said that the seeds planted on half a bigha of land were damaged by the gabaro.

“The problem of gabaro has been noticed less than a month after the planting of rice”, he said. “The rice plants are wilting; the planted rice plants have reached the stage of death; after the plants die, rice is not produced.” Mentioning that the agricultural technician was apprised of the problem, farmer Saund said that the city chief and a team of agricultural technicians visited the farm and monitored it. Lal Bahadur Dhami, head of the agriculture branch in the municipality, said that since the problem of gabaro is in its first stage, farmers have been advised to water the rice plants in such a way that they drown.

The Gabaro disease problem is in all the wards of the municipality”, he said, “mostly seen in wards No. 1, 2, and 7. We are engaged in teaching measures to farmers for the diagnosis of Gabaro disease; a team has been mobilized for that.” Kallu Dagoura, a farmer in Shuklaphanta municipality 7, said that the problem of gabaro is more common in fields where chemical fertilizers are used. “There is not so much blight in the fields where organic fertilizers are applied at home”, he said. “There is a problem of blight disease in the fields where chemical fertilizers are applied.”

The outbreak of gabaro is more common in the rice planted by the farmers of Chure Fedi in the municipality. According to the head of the agriculture branch, Karan Singh Budhair, farmers have started approaching the branch with the problem of weed. Since the gabaro insect is a hostile organism, advice is being given for its management. Farmers are very worried because the problem of gabaro is seen during the growing of rice and the planting of hemp. He said, “We have advised using the pesticide Carvofuran from 41 to 80 days after planting rice.”

He said that when the rice plants are treated with pesticides, there should be five to eight centimeters of water in the field. That water should be kept in the field for five days. Kanchanpur is considered fertile land for rice cultivation. Here, paddy is cultivated on 48,496 hectares of land.