The General Council of National Food Security Mission decided to allocate funds for cultivation of pulses and oilseeds, in those areas of West Bengal, where the wheat crop affected by blast disease during the 2016-17 rabi season. In March, the central government declared a three-year wheat holiday in Nadia and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal that reported outbreak of wheat blast in February, to curtail the spread of the disease. The Latin American disease made its way across the border from Bangladesh into India. Growers in the region had burnt the affected crop that was over 1,000 ha in the state.