Paddy bug numbers have significantly decreased since the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) intensified their spraying programme.
This is according to GRDB officials including General Manager Nizam Hassan, Entomologist Viviane Baharally and Deputy General Manager Allison Peters, who spoke to Stabroek News last week.
Some rice industry stakeholders have complained of a paddy bug infestation over the past months and in a recent letter published in the Stabroek News, former Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy accused the GRDB and the Ministry of Agriculture of being negligent and allowing the paddy bug problem to escalate into an emergency.
Despite this, in the Ministry of Finance’s mid-year economic report, it was stated that rice output grew by 3.7 per cent despite the threat of a paddy bug infestation earlier in the year. “This increase was due to improvements in both the number of hectares harvested and the yield,” the report said.
Hassan told Stabroek News last week that they were able to identify the bugs earlier than usual – during land preparation – which allowed them to attack the pest early.
He said that during land preparation, the bugs were observed on the dams and other lands surrounding the rice fields on alternate hosts. However, at the time, there were no rice plants in the fields.
“Having seen it earlier, we were advising farmers and recommending to them that they should be spraying where they are seeing the bugs. They have irrigation and drainage canals that [have] vegetation where they saw bugs,” Hassan explained.
He said that in addition to advising the farmers, the GRDB organised teams across the regions comprising of Paddy Bug and Extension Officers and men hired to spray chemicals to kill the pests. The GRDB provided the chemicals and the hired personnel then went around the regions attacking the bugs.
This has been ongoing for more than a month and Hassan reasoned that attacking the paddy bugs before the rice started to flower in the fields would be more effective.
“When the adults invade, they invade by the millions so it is better to identify the time and place where they invade and knock them out almost immediately,” Baharally said.
She observed that the situation was allowed to get out of hand because some of the farmers around the country have been reluctant to attack the bugs during their land preparation. Most of them, she added, did not follow the GRDB’s advice since the crop was not in its susceptible stage and “that is when it came to the point when we said we have to do this.”
Hassan said that they have since accelerated the spraying and are working along with farmers with decentralised teams around the regions.
As a result, according to Baharally, the paddy bug population has been significantly reduced.
“So it’s a significant decrease and it has a lot to do with the actions in the regions and help from farmers as well,” she said.
Hassan also said that the situation was amplified by the fact that the rice growing period has been extended as well as the uneven and uncoordinated planting in the fields. Most times, rice is at varying stages of development in the same block which allows the paddy bugs to thrive and be able to attack more fields. If the fields were more uniform in terms of their development stages, Baharally said, the GRDB and farmers would be able to more effectively manage the infestation.
Hassan also said that another reason why the paddy bugs were able to thrive for this crop was due to some farmers’ agronomic practices. He said that some farmers were doing preventative spraying, which is not advisable and only upsets the eco-balance of the environment.
According to the official, there were instances where some farmers did not spray at all but were able to get Grade A rice.
The paddy bug has a lot of natural enemies inclusive of spiders, beetles and other bugs. When farmers do preventative spraying, they kill other insects that often feed on the paddy bug, which then allows the pest to thrive unhindered.
“When they move one by one in the fields, those natural enemies can take care of them. When they invade by the millions, that’s when the farmers have to take care of it. The important thing is to know when the invasion occurs so you can kill them before they have a chance to spread,” Baharally said. She emphasised that farmers should monitor their fields and surrounding areas in the morning and spray in the afternoon since the bugs attack during the night.
To better manage the bugs, Baharally stressed that uniform block planting is needed and farmers should not encourage alternate hosts of the paddy bugs on or around their fields. They should not do preventative spraying in order to ensure the paddy bug’s predators can thrive, she added.
Additionally, the entomologist said, they are planning to embark on a bio-control programme for the pest.
Meantime, while Hassan could not give an estimate of how much losses have resulted from the paddy bugs so far, he said that the GRDB is trying assiduously to minimise the damage to farmers.
Their spraying programme will be intensified going forward in order to manage the paddy bug infestation, he said.
