Protect maize crop from Fall Armyworm HP Agri department

Hamirpur (HP), Jun 27 (PTI) Concerned over outbreak of Fall Armyworm insect in maize crop in Himachal's Hamirpur district, the agriculture department on Friday appealed to the farmers to stay cautious.
    The Fall Armyworm insect has been causing extensive damage to the maize crop in the district for the last five years and information about the infestation of this insect has been received from areas where maize sowing was done 20-25 days ago, Deputy Director, agriculture department, Shashipal Atri said on Friday.
    Maize -- commonly known as corn, consumed as food items besides being an ingredient in industrial products like biofuels (ethanol), plastics, and even textiles -- is sown on about 28,000 hectares of land in Hamirpur district.
    A team of departmental officers has been constituted to monitor the infection of this insect after reports were received from the farmers. They are inspecting the crop and making farmers aware of the identification, symptoms and management of the pest, he said.
    The caterpillar stage of this insect completely destroys the crop by damaging the leaves and stems of maize. In the initial stage, this insect makes small needle-like holes on the leaves, which later turn into large irregular holes and the caterpillars hide inside the corolla and eat the leaves, said Attri.
    He said that neem-based insecticide is affected if the infestation is less than 10 per cent, while Chlorantraniliprole 18.5 SC (Corazon) may be used if the infestation is more than 10 per cent. Insecticides have been made available in all the block-level offices of the department.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)