Farmers in Madhukhali upazila, Faridpur, were simultaneously baffled and upset by a new kind of insect attack to their sugarcane fields in the past couple of days.
The insects, grasshoppers, though not an unfamiliar object in the countryside, previously used to come in small groups. But this year they came swarming, and are causing damage to crops, especially sugarcanes.
The worst affected area was the Mesordia village, where about hundred acres of sugarcane fields were attacked by the plant-eaters.
Farmers said these grasshoppers attack young stalks of sugarcanes at night, and lie hiding under grass during the day. To add to their concern, the insects are also resistant to the pesticides used to eliminate regular plant pests.
Daud Hossain, a farmer at Mesordia, said: “The insects have pesticide resistance and can eat almost twice their body weight in a single day, which is worrying. We are now using nets to catch them.”
Sources at Faridpur Sugar Mill said sugarcane is being cultivated over 4200 hectares of land under the supervision of the mill. If the grasshopper attack continues at its current pace, the production target of 125,000m tonnes may not be reached.
Komol Kanti Das, managing director of the mill, said samples of the insect have been sent to Dhaka for examination, adding that local experts are also working in the fields to find a solution.
Vashkar Chakraborty, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (Faridpur), told the Dhaka Tribune that heavy rainfall in the last couple of weeks triggered the dramatic growth of the insects, which usually remain in a dormant state.
A source at the mill said every year the government allocates money to help farmers remove weeds from their cropland and keep them clean. However, mill authorities do not distribute the money among them, hence the breeding of the insects.