TIRANGA Virus! Maharashtra's farmers fear new virus damaging tomato crop

The world is currently battling the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The entire world is under lockdown in order to curb the spread of the disease. Medical experts and researchers are putting maximu efforts to prevent the world from this deadly virus. 

Meanwhile, another bad news has come from Maharashtra. An unidentified virus is attacking tomato crops in large parts of Maharashtra. In the districts of Ahmednagar, Pune and Nashik, about 60 per cent of the crop has been decimated in the last 10 days.

The virus has destroyed about 5000 acres of crops. As per reports, the farmers across Maharashtra have named it ‘Tiranga’ virus, which they claim is damaging the tomato crop to a massive extent in the state.

Ramesh Vakle, a local tomato farmer, confirmed that the disease has done massive damage to the crops in Maharashtra."The plant leaves are drying up fast and the tomatoes are developing irregular shapes and colour and ripening prematurely. The crop ready for harvesting has been lost to this unidentified disease. Due to this, we are not getting buyers for our tomatoes,'' he said.

Due to the lockdown, the samples of the diseased tomatoes have not reached national laboratories for further analysis. Seed companies have also analysed the samples but they are claiming that the viral attack is not very significant, said Ajit Navale, General Secretary (Maharashtra) of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).