India: Cashew farmers in Odisha to suffer losses as tea mosquito bug destroys crops

Tea mosquito bugs have attacked acres of cashew crops in Odisha and climate change may be to blame, say experts. Thousands of cashew growers in Ganjam district have suffered crop loss due to the infestation, according to Sarat Chandra Behera, deputy director of the state horticulture department. Almost all of the cashew plants Ramesh Sabar, a tribal farmer in Raipada in Odisha’s Ganjam district, had grown in about two-hectares of land dried up without flowering at a time when the cash crop is usually harvested. Sabar, who lives in Beguniapada block, said: The tea mosquito bug (Helopeltis antonii) has been around for years but generally infected the cashew plantations in the south Indian states, said Prabhu Charan Lenka, former professor of horticulture of Odisha University Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar. Fruits of plants infected by the bug get a warty appearance and its market value is substantially reduced, said Lenka, one of the consultants of the Directorate of ...