|
RANGPUR, Mar 8: Potato cultivators of greater Rangpur district have become worried as their produces on thousands acres of land are being damaged by unidentified diseases, according to sources.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) official sources, about 11,30,000 hectares of land were brought under potato cultivation in the district this year with a production target of 16,95,000 tonnes.
Production of about 50 per cent of the total cultivated land has already been damaged and the farmers apprehend that they will be able to achieve only 25 per cent of their production target, they added.
According to a number of sources the diseases look like 'sheet blight' or 'late blight' that develop from fungus.
On the other hand, some sources declined to term these as fungus-related diseases.
Local farmers alleged that the authority concerned did not take preventive measures to check the diseases.
When asked, DAE official in Rangpur MD Taibur Rahman told the FE that normally 'late blight' or any other fungus-related diseases infected potato plants 50 days after developing seeds in the fields and there was nothing new in this season also.
He also accused the potato growers of taking no preventive measures against fungus this year as the winter appeared late this year.
|