This year potato cultivators will face immense problem from the Dhasa disease," said Mr Tapan Kumar Sarkar, district plant protection officer of Jalpaiguri. Throughout Jalpaiguri district all the cold storages have affected seeds. We apprised the cultivators of Jalpaiguri not to use the effected seed as last year majority of potatoes were affected by Dhasas.
But the farmers are not accepting our proposal as they want to buy potatoes from local market said Mr Sarkar. In the last year about 40,000 hectares of land were used for potato cultivation throughout Jalpaiguri district. Of this about 18,000 hectares of land were affected by the disease. "The potato cultivators had faced major problem. But this year the cultivator must abide by the rules of potato cultivation.
“Otherwise, they will face the same problem again," remarked Mr Shekh Anwar Hussein, the principal agriculture officer of Jalpaiguri. We have started campaigning throughout the district to make the cultivators aware. “The methods are being advertised in leaflets, paper and television in all the regions. The farmers should be aware about the diseases.
If the farmer used the local seed then they should purify the seed using certain methods which are there in the leaflets. If the farmer uses Punjab, Ludhiana and Bhutan seeds then they will be benefited more. As the effected seed will destroy all the potatoes so they should not be used. The potato cultivator should go through the stage of purifying of seed. They can do the purification in their house also.