M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 14: Frost and hailstones that lashed out recently all over Jharkhand due to inclement weather have damaged the mango saplings being grown under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojna in Mahuadanr block of Latehar district.
Duroop and Champa panchayats are said to be worst affected by the frost and hailstones.
A resident of Duroop Yahiya Ansari said that six mango growers of his panchayat stand devastated after their saplings were destroyed. Their saplings (112 saplings in one acre each) have dried up and the growers are in terrible loss.
Birsa Harit Gram Yojna is MGNREGA attached.
Local Congress MLA Ramchandar Singh said he has received complaints from the farmers about their damaged mango saplings in the frost and hailstones that lashed out at Mahuadanr block recently.
Agriculture scientist of the Birsa Zonal Research Station at Chiyanki in Palamu Pramod Kumar said that mango, tulsi, potato etc are sensitive to frost and decay faster.
He said that growers notice the decay after a considerable gap of time when leaves start blackening due to frost and hailstones and by then it gets too late for the resuscitation of the saplings of the mangoes etc.
Another scientist of this research station Dr Abdul Majid Ansari said that newly developed orchards get more harmed by the frost and hailstones following inadequacy of rooting. Alertness can help save new developed plants from the vagaries of nature.
Both the scientists Pramod and Ansari asked the growers to maintain moisture in cases of frost-bitten plants. The two suggested growers should go for irrigating the frost struck plants.
