Lekhnath, January 19:

Sugarcane farmers of Lekhnath Municipality-15 have complained that they are not getting any assistance from the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) of Kaski for the control of pests in sugarcane plantation.

Farmers said they had requested the agriculture office time and again to provide help when sugarcane plants started getting attacked by ants and termites, but to no avail.

Farmer Lal Bahadur Shrestha of Lekhnath-15 said, “We have only heard that there is a JTA in the agriculture office to help farmers, but we have not met any JTA till now.”

Another farmer Bhawanidhi Basaula stating that sugarcane production has gone down by 25 per cent due to insects and pests, accused the agriculture office of not providing any insecticide for the sugarcane plants. He added that the household measures that they adapted to control pests are not being effective.

Another farmer Bishnu Maya Shrestha said farmers couldn’t find JTAs even after numerous visits to the agriculture service centre. However, DADO said they cannot provide technical assistance to farmers directly. Acting chief of the office, Pushpa Adhikari said, “Farmers can ask for help from agriculture service centres.” He added that JTAs cannot be provided for each and every village.

DADO said the agriculture service centres have been established at Sisuwa Rupakot and Khudi for providing agricultural services in the region. The office added that because JTAs have to travel in fields many times, farmers might have trouble meeting JTAs in the office.

Farmers have been practicing commercial sugarcane farming on around 300 ropanis of land in Dhondbesi, Malepatan and Chautara of Lekhnath Municipality-15.

Farmers have also complained of not getting a good market for their produce.