Chandigarh, Aug 26 (IANS) Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shyam Singh Rana, on Tuesday, assured the Assembly that the state government is on alert regarding dwarf virus, with scientists monitoring the situation and farmers are being made aware about it.

He said that in organic farming and in direct-seeding of rice, there has been no report of damage owing to Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus.

“If farmers sow paddy according to the government’s agriculture policy and the advice of agricultural scientists, such diseases can be largely prevented,” he added.

The Minister was replying to a calling attention motion moved by members in the House.

He said the dwarf virus is a viral disease that affects the paddy crop and has become a matter of concern in many rice-producing areas of India.

“This disease spreads through a vector called white-backed plant hopper, which sucks the sap of paddy plants and transmits the virus from infected plants to healthy ones.”

He said that due to the virus the normal growth of infected rice plants stops, making them stunted with much less height than normal.

“Their leaves turn dark green, the development of new buds slows down or stops completely, and the roots turn brown and remain underdeveloped, reducing the plant’s ability to absorb water and nutrients.”

The Agriculture Minister said the outbreak of the virus was first reported in the state during the kharif season of 2022 when only a few cases were reported, but timely action and awareness campaigns prevented major damage.

In 2023 and 2024, no outbreak was reported due to effective preventive measures and increased awareness among farmers.

This year the disease re-emerged.

The first cases were reported from Kaithal district and later from Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Jind, and Panchkula districts.

Farmers in these areas complained of abnormal dwarfing of plants in their fields.

Scientists from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar and officials from the Agriculture Department conducted a detailed survey, which revealed that this disease was most prevalent in hybrid rice varieties, followed by parmal (non-basmati) and then basmati varieties.

The problem was mainly observed in fields where farmers had transplanted paddy before June 25, Minister Rana said.

The Minister added that scientists collected samples of infected plants and tested them using RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) technique and that confirmed the plants were infected with the dwarf virus.

–IANS

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