"They can plant secondary crops more easily such as cassava, peanuts and soybeans because these crops do not need much water," Crops Pest Monitoring Coordinator of Batang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Service, Susbandoro said here on Saturday.
He made the call in response to brown plant-hoppers` attacks on farmers` paddy fields in the three sub districts in the current dry season.
He said that in anticipation of the adverse effects of the brown plant-hoppers` and borers` attacks, farmers were called on to also plant secondary crops.
He said that if farmers were willing to cut off the life cycle of brown plant-hoppers and other pests they should conduct paddy plantations simultaneously or only plant secondary crops.
"We suggest that farmers in the current dry spells plant only secondary crops," he added
Brown plant-hoppers are now attacking farmers` crops in a number of villages in Batang district, Central Java. It continued to spread and had now covered three sub districts, namely Bandar, Subah and Pacelungan.
"Planting patterns carried out not simultaneously provide a chance for brown plant-hoppers to continue their life cycle," he said.
He said that brown plant-hoppers had attacked 70 hectares of rice fields in Bandar, 22 hectares in Subah and 21 hectares in Pecalungan.
Susbandoro said that besides brown plant-hoppers, other borers had also begun attacking a number of villages in Pecalungan.
"The pests have attacked at least 45 hectares of rice fields. The effects of the attack will cause paddy grains to have no content and turn white. If the attack continue, farmers will face failure to harvest their crops," he said.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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