Potato growers of Dangkhar village under Trong Gewog in Zhemgang are disappointed with the potato yield this time. With the harvest season just begun, potatoes are being infected by the blight, a disease caused by a fungus.
The blight infects leaves, stems and tubers and eventually damaging the potato. Potato growers of Dangkhar village say unlike in the past, their hard work this time has gone in vain. “Government has instructed us to grow more vegetables but all our potatoes got infected by the blight. We don’t know what is going wrong even though the seeds are provided by the government,” said Nado, a villager.
Besides potatoes, other vegetables were also infected by the same disease.
Farmers doubt incessant rainfall during the harvest season and climate change to have caused the blight.
Comparing to the past two years, farmers say this season is worst affected. About 50 percent of potato could not be harvested due to the blight.
According to the Dzongkhag Agriculture Officer, Karma Tenzin, despite repeated trainings and advocacy campaigns by the RNR and Dzongkhag officials, villagers still do not report about the infection on time.
“We have potato disease like late blight and early blight. We give trainings to the farmers and we don’t encourage them to use pesticide, unless the disease has affected larger area of cultivation and there is no way out to prevent from the disease.”
Dangkhar village has about 18 households. Potato is the main cash crops grow by the villagers, besides other vegetables.
