Chilli under attack

A new species of thrips destroys chilli farms across six states, triggering market shortage and farmer suicides

- SHAGUN

CHILLI FARMERS in Telangana's Subakkapalli village, Bhopalapalli district, are living their worst nightmare. A new pest, black thrips (Thrips parvispinus), has destroyed over 40 hectares (ha) of standing crop in a matter of months.

In Sidduri Ravindra Rao's farm, the initial signs of the attack were reported in the first week of December last year. Ravindra increased the frequency of pesticide spraying to three times a week from the recommended two times, but the entire crop on his 0.8 ha farm perished within a week. On December 15, he died by suicide. His brother Bhaskar Rao told Down To Earth (DTE) that Ravindra was relying on this year's produce to repay his loan of over ₹20 lakh. "First, untimely heavy rainfall destroyed our crops. This season, we lost it to pest attacks," he says.

Farmers in Jairam Thanda village of the state's Warangal district also narrate similar stories. The black-coloured and pinhead-sized pest has ruined the entire 20 ha under chilli in the village. Banath Venkamma, a chilli farmer from the village, says when he first saw the pest on his 0.4-ha farm, he contacted the local agriculture extension office, which recommended continuing with the existing pesticides. "I used at least six different pesticides but nothing worked. The pest has completely destroyed 70 per cent of my crop and has partially destroyed the remainder. Usually, chillies we, grow are 7 to 10 cm long, but this time they are barely 5 cm long," says Venkamma.

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T parvispinusis, a member of the thrips group of sucking pests, is an invasive species from Southeast Asia that has been documented in different countries including Australia, Thailand and Greece. It causes more damage than S dorsalis, the thrips pest native to India. By attacking the flowers and not just leaves,