Trichy: Sugarcane crops grown over hundreds of acres in Papanasam in Thanjavur have been affected by the Pokkaboing disease, reports The Times of India.
The farmers have stated that the disease is spreading in the neighboring fields, damaging other cane crops. As many as 300 acres of area out of a total of 1000 acres of the area have been infected by the disease, said the agriculture officials.
Cane grown in Veeramangudi, Ganapathi Agraharam, Someshwarapuram and Manalur in Papanasam block and Echangudi, Peramur, and Okkakudi in Thiruvaiyaur has become the target of the disease.
According to the farmers, the entire leaf turns yellow. We are unsure whether it was due to fungus or pest attack. Since the disease was spreading and we didn’t know how to get rid of it, we started destroying the five-month-old crop by ploughing the cane field and switching over to paddy.
On average farmers spend Rs 1 lakh to grow cane crop in one acre and so far they have spent Rs 30,000 which they have lost due to the infection, said farmers.
