Krishi Jagran Conducted a Webinar on “Disease and Pest Management in Paddy”

Krishi Jagran conducted a webinar on “Disease and Pest Management in Paddy” on Wednesday, 29^th June 2022. Since the monsoon season is around the corner, paddy becomes more prone to insect-pest attacks during this time. 

The aim of the webinar was to highlight the challenges that farmers face due to insect pests and provide them with appropriate solutions and measures to prevent their crops from such attacks.

The session was broadcasted live on the Facebook page of Krishi Jagran. Shruti Joshi Nigam, Content Manager (Hindi), Krishi Jagran commenced the webinar by welcoming all the guest speakers, who have joined the webinar from different states.

Dr. P.K. Pant, Chief Operating Officer, Krishi Jagran moderated the virtual event. He stated that the monsoon season will come a little late this year, and the scarcity of water in the country has reached new heights.

Many lakes in the north region of the country have dried up due to extreme temperatures, which has made the cultivation of paddy difficult for the farmers, as rice crops require large amounts of water.

Dr. P.K. Pant then invited the first speaker, Dr. Subhash Chander, Director, ICAR-National Research Center for Integrated Pest, to shed some light on the subject “Disease and Pest Management in Paddy.”

He addressed the primary concerns of the webinar in his presentation, which were basically to help farmers, produce safe food, reduce input costs, and help prevent their crops from diseases and pest attacks.

The next speaker was Dr. Arup K. Mukherjee, Principal Scientist, Molecular Plant Pathology, Division of Crop Protection, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttak, to share his insightful thoughts. Dr. Arup K. Mukherjee said that the seed selection process is the most crucial practice in any crop cultivation.

“Farmers must ensure that the seeds they’re using are of good quality,” he added.

He explained the two types of paddy grains-complete field grain and half field grain. Complete field grains are healthy seeds and half field grains are unhealthy seeds. Using half-grain seeds can lead to a poor yield of the crop.

In his session, he even discussed a seed testing method, which farmers can use to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy seeds. The seed testing method includes adding 20gm of salt to 1 liter of water for testing 2 Kg of seeds.

Farmers can check whether the seeds are healthy or unhealthy by adding 2kg paddy seeds to this water solution, and if the seeds are drowned, it indicates that the seeds are good and healthy.

Seeds that do not settle down, and remain on the surface, indicate that they are unhealthy. Farmers can eliminate the seeds that remain on the surface.

Dr. P.K. Pant then invited the next speaker, Dr. Najam Waris Zaidi, Senior Associate Scientist, Plant Pathology, International Rice Research Institute, New Delhi. Dr. Najam Waris Zaidi, in her session, suggested some disease management measures that farmers can adopt to receive a bountiful harvest.

She stated that the farmers must be aware of all the crop diseases and pests in the area so that they can select the variety, which is resilient to those diseases and pests. She added that there are a variety of disease and insect-resistant seeds available on the market, which farmers can select to grow healthy crops.

The webinar was concluded with the vote of thanks presented by Shruti Joshi Nigam, Content Manager (Hindi), Krishi Jagran. She thanked all the speakers who joined the webinar, shared their valuable thoughts, and contributed to making it successful and informative.