FIRE BLIGHT CONCERNS FRUIT FARMERS

[Anchor Lead]

While South Korea is battling against the coronavirus outbreak, fruit farmers are faced with a more immediate concern. It is fire blight, a contagious disease affecting their crops. Farmers are doing their utmost to prevent the looming threat.

[Pkg]

​Ten-year-old apple trees are being uprooted. A fertile, productive orchard turned into a barren wasteland after an attack of fire blight. Nicknamed AIDS for apple and pear trees, fire blight rapidly spread in Chungju, Jecheon and Eumseong in Chungcheongbuk-do Province last year. The outbreak took a toll on fields measuring almost 890,000 square meters. A farm-wide disinfection operation is underway, spraying a large amount of antiseptic agents onto trees. Farmers are hard at work to protect their apple trees from the contagious disease.

[Soundbite] AHN JOO-HWAN(APPLE FARMER) : "Fire blight is very fatal, since farming is impossible for four or five years, following the disease' attack. Intensive disinfection is the only way to prevent it."

Three rounds of disinfection operations are carried out between early March and late May. With leaves and flower buds sprouting, this season is known to be the right time to block fire blight.

[Soundbite] KIM DONG-EOP(AGRICULTURAL CONSULTANT) : "Symptoms of fire blight begin to appear when trees are pollinated. But it heavily spreads when leaves sprout and flowers bloom. Therefore, preventive disinfection is the most effective in blocking the disease."

As last winter was warmer than usual, fruit trees are exposed to a higher risk of infectious diseases. Farmers are going all-out to protect their crops from fire blight.