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[av_heading heading=’Armyworms prey on San Jose rice fields’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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An armyworm on a rice stalk. RICE KNOWLEDGE BANK / IRRI
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SAN JOSE, Antique – Armyworms have infested 127 hectares of rice fields in this capital town.
An official of the Department of Agriculture’s Regional Crop Protection Center confirmed this in a Philippine Information Agency program over Radyo ng Bayan in Iloilo City.
According to Ryan Rasgo, the Center was currently monitoring the affected rice fields in five barangays.
Armyworms were voracious feeder pests that prey on not only rice but also sugarcane, corn and other plants in the grass family, Rasgo said.
What made the infestation alarming was it occurred when the rice were already in the harvesting stage, and the affected areas made up around 15 percent of the total area planted to rice in the five villages, he said.
The Center received a report on the infestation from local farm technicians on Jan. 17.
No more reports on infestation in other parts of the capital town have reached the Center as of Jan. 27.
Rasgo said they believed the armyworm infestation was “triggered by the rains brought by typhoon ‘Auring’ that hit the country early this month.”
In light of the infestation, the Center has activated provincial and municipal task forces on pest management to assess the need for measures to prevent the spread of the armyworms, including the provision of insecticides.
Rasgo said the local government unit has started teaching the farmers how to manage and control the pest.
Moreover, the farmers were advised to plow and irrigate the affected rice fields right after harvest to prevent infestation in the next planting and use light trappings to monitor and control adult armyworms. (PIA/PN)
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