Armyworm infestation is becoming a nightmare for the farmers of Kalapang and Mangling villages in Saling Gewog of Monggar dzongkhag. Today, almost every household of these two villages is losing their crops to the worms.
One of them is the 66-year-old Pema Wangdi from Kalapang village. Pema cultivated maize on over an acre of land, this year. But little did he know that he would lose almost all of his maize to armyworm.
He said farmers of Kalapang village have been battling the armyworm infestation for more than two years now.
“The worms started attacking our crops in 2019. It also damaged the chili seedlings this time. Likewise, the worm damaged the bigger maize plants but there wasn’t much impact on its harvest. It is also destroying the small maize saplings. When the plants grow, the worms attack the corn leaves and it starts to dry up slowly,” Pema Wangdi said.
Likewise, fed up with the problem, Phunstho Wangdi, another farmer from the same village, today is discouraged to grow more.
“Be it maize plants or vegetables when worms destroy our crops in the middle of the plantation, we get demotivated to work hard. We get inspired only when we get a good return from our hard toil. After working so hard, the worms eat our crops and even the chilli harvest wasn’t good this time due to armyworm infestation,” he said.
This has also affected their income. “We used to sell the beaten maize despite the worm infestation. But we could not sell more from last year onwards. Due to the worm attack, our income also got slashed down,” he added.
Worried over the matter, farmers claimed they have reported the matter to the Gewog Agriculture Extension Supervisor. However, they did not see any interventions from the gewog office, so far.
On the other hand, the Saling Gup and the Gewog Agriculture Extension Supervisor said that they have not received any complaints from the farmers concerning the matter. The Gup said that they have only received the armyworm damage reports from the farmers in Mangling village. Accordingly, the gewog office has distributed pesticides to about eleven households in the village.
The Gup however added the gewog office has procured enough pesticides and is ready to distribute to the rest of the affected villages.
Like Saling Gewog, Chhaling Gewog also reported armyworm infestations.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
