The farmers said a disease called ´neck blast´ affected the paddy plants shortly after flowering. The disease has been detected in 12,000 hectares of the paddy plantation where farmers had grown a new Chinese hybrid paddy seed. [break]
“The paddy panicles are drying up before flowers develop into grains,” Saroj Sapkota, Vice Chair of Kavre Agrovet Association informed. “We have assessed the loss caused to the farmers and submitted the report to the District Agriculture Development Office,” he said adding that the scientists have identified the disease to be ´neck blast´.
“The disease is caused by Pyricularia oryzae fungus, which leads to rotten neck of the paddy plants affecting the development of panicle,” Madhusudhan Poudel, Senior Corp Conservation Officer said.
The disease has affected around 90 percent of paddy fields where the DY-69 species of paddy has been grown in the Panchkhal Valley. Besides the neck blast disease, the rice fields are also infested with stem borers.
The District Agriculture Office had recommended Makawanpur-1 species of rice for Panchkhal valley. However, farmers were attracted toward DY-69, a Chinese hybrid seed as the seed yielded a good harvest two years ago.
According to Sapkota, the DY-69 was planted in 12,000 hectares this year. “I decided to try this new seed this year as farmers, who had planted this variety had reported high productivity. But, things went wrong this year. At the time harvest, the panicles dried, turned black and gave no grain,” complained, Sabitri Sapkota, a local.
Dilaram Bhandari, the chief of Seed Quality Control Center, was of the opinion that some of the importers in the area have been selling the paddy seed, which is not suitable for the area. “We have found that the seed variety we had recommended for the Tarai and inner-Tarai were being sold in the mid-hill region of the country,” Bhandari informed.
Madhusudhan Pradhan, the importer of the Chinese paddy seed admitted that the neck blast disease has been widely found in the paddy fields in Bhatkapur and Kavre, where the Chinese seed was used. Pradhan had imported 50 metric tons of the new hybrid seed from Sichuan Deyue Seeds Co., Ltd in China.
“We have sent a letter to the seed producer requesting them to visit Nepal and take stock of the situation here,” said Pradhan.
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