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After the disease of cassava mosaic, fall armyworms are now causing serious damage to corn growers

There is a great concern over diseases after diseases on crops

At this time, two types of pests are developing, which has resulted in considerable worry and cassava mosaic and fall armyworms have also caused serious damage to the cultivation sector. Cassava mosaic has appeared on cassava plants in June, 2018 but up to now this disease has not been able to be kept under control and it is developing complicatedly.

According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, just after two months since the disease broke out nearly 380 cassava-growing hectares has been infected with cassava mosaic. In late 2018, cassava mosaic tended to decrease as farmers focused on prevention and control measures. However, in early July 2019, the cassava-growing area infected with this disease was again back to a sudden increase. Currently, there have been more than 450 cassava-growing hectares infected with cassava mosaic.

Meanwhile, fall armyworms on corn plants have appeared in the province since early May. Autumn acacia epidemic damage despite new appearance, but also cause great damage to corn growers. Having appeared for 2 months, fall army worms have now damaged more than 400 hectares of corn in the province.

The Head of the provincial Plant Quarantine Station, Nguyen Trang Thinh, said that fall armyworms were detected in the northern region provinces in early February, 2019.  Then, this harmful exotic species has quickly spread to a lot of localities across the country.

Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Huynh Thanh Vinh said, for both cassava mosaic and fall army worms scientists have not been able to find out the most effective remedy. For cassava mosaic, only cassava varieties resistant to the disease have been able to be found but no disease-tolerant varieties have been found. Similarly, for fall army worms taking preventive measures is recommended and manual measures are advised to be taken to eliminate the disease at its initial appearance.

African swine fever has spread to 11 out of 11 districts and cities

According to Dong Nai Department of Livestock and Veterinary, up to now 11 out of 11 districts and cities in Dong Nai have been infected with the harmful African swine fever, which has affected 81 communes, 185 hamlets and nearly 950 households. Particularly, the number of killed and disposed pigs has amounted to over 108,000 heads. Of 81 epidemic communes, there currently are 4 communes: Hiep Phuoc and Phuoc Thien in Nhon Trach district, Doi 61 in Trang Bom district and An Phuoc in Long Thanh district, which have announced outbreaks. However, the epidemic has re-occurred in Doi 61 commune, Trang Bom district.

African swine fever has now spread to 11 out of 11 districts and cities in the province

In particular, Vinh Cuu is the district with the highest number of killed and disposed pigs, accounting for 53% of the total destroyed pigs, followed by Trang Bom district with 25% of total destroyed pigs.

In particular, African swine fever has not only appeared in small and scattered livestock households, but started to attack on large-scale farms with a total number of tens of thousands of pigs and cause heavy losses to livestock farmers.

To deal with the development of African swine fever that is spreading all over the province, functional agencies of the province and localities and ranchers are working very hard to combat the disease.

Meanwhile, for pests on crops the Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee has just sent a document on the prevention and control of cassava mosaic and fall armyworms on corn plants to the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, Science and Technology, Information and Communications and Industry and Trade; the provincial Public Security; and the People's Committees of districts, cities; and the agencies, newspapers and radio and television stations in the province.

Accordingly, to promote the prevention and control of cassava mosaic and fall armyworms, the Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee assigned the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to host and coordinate with other departments, concerned sectors and localities to monitor how corns and cassava are cultivated to set directions on varieties, harvest time, and farming methods against cassava mosaic and fall army worms; strengthen inspections to early detect the areas infected with cassava mosaic and offer instructions on how to prevent and control these diseases according to the Department of Plant Protection’s technical process of prevention and control of cassava mosaic and fall army worms; direct the agricultural promotion system to focus on disseminating propaganda activities to and giving training on prevention and control measures to farmers; quickly have plant protection products with great effectiveness against fall army worms tested as a basis to give farmers recommendations; investigate and discover corn and cassava varieties resistant to diseases and help farmers to replace seriously infected varieties; continue to perform the models making disease-free cassava varieties and bring these varieties into cultivation; and so on.

Duy Minh (T. C)