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)