Snail Invasion Destroys Soybean Farms In Maharashtra

Ramwadi Dhavalapuri, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Maharashtra)

Thousands of snails in his 1.5 acre piece of land on which he was cultivating soybean has left farmer Vijay Ganpat Kanse, bereft. The 35-year-old farmer from Ramvadi Dhavlapur village in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district is at his wits' end wondering how he is going to recover from this blow.

“I have a wife and two daughters, and a son who all study at school. I have to look after my elderly parents. I have incurred huge losses,” the farmer lamented.

“I planted soybeans in June and by July the snails had destroyed the saplings. I spent Rs 25,000 on the crop. Had the snails not damaged my crop, I would have harvested 300 kilogrammes of soybean which would have been sold for Rs 150,000,” he told Gaon Connection. To his dismay, he was not lucky and the snails spared nothing.

Similar is the case of Shridhar Gangaram Katkar, a 47-year-old farmer from the same village.

“I planted soybeans in June and so far I have spent Rs 36,000 on the crop. The snails had destroyed the saplings completely in July so I sowed the crop again which incurred a cost of Rs 4,000. That was also destroyed by snails. This is the third time I have sown soybean and it cost me another Rs 4,000. The crop is destroyed by snails again,” the farmer added.

Soybean is cultivated extensively by thousands of farmers like Katkar in Latur, Dharashiv, Jalna, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts.

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“Out of 497,232 hectares of soybean in Latur, 48,800 hectares are destroyed in the snail infestation,” Shivsamb Ladke, the district agricultural officer in Latur told Gaon Connection. Udgir Taluka was the worst hit with 18, 827 hectares destroyed. In Ahmadpur Taluka 18,300 hectares, in Renapur 1 600 hectares and in Nilanga Taluka, 1,260 hectares came under snail attack. “After some unseasonal rains, farmers said they did notice snails on the bunds in their fields, but though we took action, it was too little too late,” he said.

“A total of 3,28,521 hectares of soybean was cultivated in Beed district, of which 476 hectares were infested. In Jalna, 2,03739 hectares of soybean were planted of which 216 hectares of the crop was infested while in Chhatrapati Shivajinagar, of the 28,391 hectares of soyabean 193 hectares were been chewed up by the snails,” said RT Jadhav, joint director, agriculture department, Chatrapati Sambhajinagar, said. According to him, Ambajogai, Kej, Patoda, Parli, Talukas in Beed were the worst hit while the Tuljapur area in Osmanabad took a bad hit.

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“They remain hidden below the ground during the day and come out after sunset. By the time the sun rises they have eaten their way through all the leaves of the soybean seedlings. The fields look like they have been overrun by cattle,” Jadhav told Gaon Connection.

Where have the snails come from?

Continuous rainfall, high humidity (75 to 80 per cent) and temperatures that hover around 25 to 27 degrees Celsius are conditions that attract snails, said PS Neharkar, head of the department of entomology at the Parbhani-based Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth. Though it has not rained all that much in Marathwada, the skies have been overcast, he added.

“The snails have been infesting the crops for the last five years but this year has led to their population explosion. It is unprecedented that the soybean crops spread across entire fields are being eaten away by the snails,” Neharkar told Gaon Connection.

The entomologist pointed out how Marathwada had been having good showers in the last three or four years. The moisture content in the soil and humidity is conducive to snail breeding. In 2020-21, there were good monsoon rains followed by cold weather in December and January and then the high temperatures, and all the while the snails remained dormant in the soil.

The snails proliferated in the rains before the Kharif season and attacked the crops. “The early advent of the monsoons and prolonged rainfall proved to be ideal for the snails. The continued moisture in the soil for seven to eight months was perfect breeding conditions and their numbers went up,” Nehrakar explained.

Snails live on the periphery of the land that has water accumulated on it. They are to be found in water bodies, stagnant water and moist soil. The entomologist said that snail eggs are usually present in farm equipment such as tractors, their tyres as well as the animals that work on the fields. And when it gets really humid, the snail eggs hatch and go on a rampage. They are at their most active in the four months between June and September.

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“The snails should be collected and submerged in salt water. They die in saline solution and after that they should be buried. Also the periphery of the field should be kept dry with tobacco husk, dried ash, and limewater to ensure that snails from outside don’t enter the field,” Neharkar said.

There are more than 35,000 species of snails around the world while India is home to 1,450 species. The snails that have hit Maharashtra’s soybean farms are multiplying in numbers exponentially because the species include Lissachatina fulica which is a hermaphrodite and every member of the species can produce eggs.

According to Nitin Patange, a Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar-based entomologist, each snail can produce as many as 100 eggs in moist soil in the first year.

“In the second year, they can produce 500 eggs. The snails can live upto six years and can stay sub-terrain for three years. When the temperature rises above 15 degrees Celsius, they come out of the ground and can start reproducing again,” Patange said.

Snails infest mosambi trees

Sweet lime farmers are also bearing the brunt of snail infestation. And, there are many farmers who are cultivating both sweet lime and soybean.

Santosh Dahihande from Chittepimpal village in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district has 2000 sweet lime or mosambi trees in 14 acres of land. “Of them 500 trees are gone. My 15 years of hard work in maintaining the trees was just wiped out,” the distressed farmer said. The trees were fine till last year and income from them kept him comfortable. “But this loss is something I will suffer from for the rest of my life. I barely have enough fruits to make any profit,” he told Gaon Connection.

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When Gaon Connection told the entomologist about the losses in the mosambi orchards, he said that “A paste of lime water and copper sulphate should be applied on the trunk of the mosambi tree. It will prevent the snails from climbing on to the tree,” Neharkar said.

He also explained that research is presently underway at the divisional laboratory of the institute to counter the invasion of snails in the state.

“The research is analysing the effects of various organic and chemical pesticides on the snails. Since, it is a recent challenge in the state, we are trying to come up with a permanent solution at the earliest,” he said.

No announcement for compensation yet

Meanwhile, the state government hasn’t announced any compensation for the losses suffered by farmers due to snail infestation. Last year, funds worth Rs 9.8 million were released as compensation to the farmers.

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Last year, according to the agriculture department in the state, 72,491 hectares of soybean farms were damaged by snails.

Tukaram Mote, the director of agriculture department informed Gaon Connection that in Pune, this year, the state government under its Crop Pest Surveillance and Advisory Project [CROPSAP], has announced an assistance of Rs 750 per hectare for the cultivators.