South Kalimantan BPTPH Handles Tungro Virus Attacks 1,683 Hectares Of Rice

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BANJARMASIN - The Center for the Protection of Food Crops and Horticulture (BPTPH) of South Kalimantan Province continues to deal with the tungro virus that attacks an area of 1,683 hectares of rice land

According to the Head of South Kalimantan BPTPH Abdul Mujib, the tungro virus attack is the largest in this province where almost all areas are affected.

The biggest or widest attack was on agricultural land in Barito Kuala Regency with a total of 929 hectares being attacked by tungro so that the rice shoots became stunted.

Furthermore, in Banjar Regency with an area of 378 hectares of rice land and Tanah Laut Regency with an area of 340 hectares.

"We will continue to handle this, until some of the land that was attacked by the tungro virus begins to recover," said Mujid, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, June 23.

As in the Handil Alabio area, Kayu Bawang Village, Gambut District, Banjar Regency, he said, after being handled by his team several times in the field, he finally recovered.

"There are many others who have started to recover from the tungro attack, but indeed most of the land such as in the Barito Kuala area is difficult to handle because the water inundated the land does not recede, this is because of the rain," he said.

Mujib said that tungro attacks covering an area of 1,683 hectares in this province were controlled so that they did not continue to expand with a total area of 7,870 hectares.

For example, in Barito Kuala Regency, the control area is 4,007 hectares, Banjar Regency is 2,278 hectares and Tanah Laut Regency is 1,278 hectares.

"The rest is in Hulu Sungai Selatan covering an area of 92 hectares and in Tapin an area of 172 hectares," said Mujib.

According to him, with the tungro virus attack, it is not certain that the harvest will fail, because there are continuous efforts to deal with and restore rice growing conditions.

Although, he said, the tungro attack caused the majority of the 1,683 hectares to fail to harvest, it did not make this province a food crisis, because the area of agricultural land in 13 districts/cities in this province was 250,031 hectares.

"Some of these have already started to harvest," he said.