Chandigarh, Oct. 1 -- Agri experts on Tuesday said that due to incessant rain and subsequent floods, the farmers in the state missed anti-fungal spraying, leading to the emergence of false smut (haldi rog) disease. The issue was raised by Sultanpur Lodhi MLA Rana Inder Partap Singh in the Vidhan Sabha on Monday, saying that the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has failed to issue an advisory to farmers so as to avoid the situation. According to the MLA, the farmers have suffered severe brunt due to incessant rainfall, which has led to floods, and now the false smut (haldi rog) has added to the woes of the peasantry. He added that due to the disease, 25% of the crop has suffered damage. Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali also raised the issue. According to reports, the paddy crop, which is at the maturing and harvest stage, has been infested with false smut disease and causing widespread damage across the state. According to the experts, owing to the disease, the loss to the crop yield is about 5-6% which is huge if calculated in terms of total yield and the crop cost. The PAU and the state agriculture department, however, differed. Though the two entities of the state accepted that infestation of the disease is widespread, according to them, the loss is nearly 2%. According to Mandeep Singh Hoonjan, a pathologist from PAU, the farmers missed anti-fungal spraying over the crop because of unrelenting rain. He refused to accept that the loss is huge. "In my opinion, nearly 2% grain has suffered damage wherever the false smut has hit," he added. Already, the paddy crop has suffered severe losses due to floods. Paddy crop was hit in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Ferozpur, and Fazilka districts, where close to 5 lakh acres have been completely destroyed, and sowing of rabi crop wheat has come under the cloud because of accumulated sand on the fields. Former secretary agriculture Kahan Singh Pannu said that the paddy crop in the entire state has suffered due to the disease. "Not only false smut, the crop has also suffered Chinese dwarf disease, which the agriculture department and PAU have not reported," Pannu added. In the current season, paddy was sown over 32.5 lakh hectares (80 lakh acres), out of which 6.80 lakh hectares (17 lakh acres) is premium basmati grain. The agriculture and the food and civil supplies departments have set a target of 180 lakh tonnes of paddy procurement in the current kharif marketing season. The two departments apprehend that the yield will fall due to floods and incessant rainfall, as crop over 5 lakh acres have been completely damaged due to floods. So far, 1.96 lakh tonnes of freshly harvested paddy has arrived in the state mandis despite the fact that the paddy procurement began early on September 15. On Tuesday, 51,000 tonnes of crop arrived, and according to the officials of the food and civil supplies department, the arrivals will pick up now as harvest has started full scale....