Outbreak of FAW not that serious, expect normal harvest:

A Mizoram Agriculture department official Friday expressed optimism that the state could expect almost normal harvest as the outbreak of Fall Army Worm (FAW) was not that "serious".

Agriculture department Joint director James Lalsiamliana told PTI that the department officials were sent to the maize cultivation areas to gauge the extent of damage by FAW till date and the feedback received from them so far was positive.

"We had earlier feared that the attacks of the swarms of FAW on the maize leaves and stems would be highly destructive having extreme adverse effects on the harvest," he said.

The joint director said the resilient nature of the maize varieties in the state coupled with the coordinated efforts of the department officials and the maize farmers as well as rainfall were likely to mitigate the damage.

He said that majority of the maize plants recovered and grew normally now, resulting in expectation of normal or near normal yield.

The FAW outbreak hit the state since April eight and infested over 68 per cent of maize fields in the state and affecting 8,928 farming families in 332 villages across the state.

Use of bio-agents like trichogramma pretiosum and meterhiziumanisopliae was considered to be extremely successful in combating the pest menace, he added.