 "Whitefly pest attacks cotton crop in Punjab")
Whitefly pest has again attacked cotton crop, now in the flowering stage, in Punjab, posing a threat to the kharif crop even as the opposition Congress lambasted the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance for its “failure” in preventing the pest attack.
“Whitefly has attacked cotton crop in several fields of about 15 villages of Khuian Sarwar block in Abohar,” an official of Punjab Agriculture department said on Monday.
With experts trying their best to prevent any damage to crop, growers have been advised to spray recommended chemicals to save the crop from whitefly which attacks cotton leaves.
“As the economic threshold limit in the current whitefly attack is more the six per leaf, farmers have been asked to spray recommended chemicals to kill the pest,” the official said, adding the stage of using 'neem-based bio-pesticides' is over and it was necessary to use chemical based insecticides.
Officials said, farmers are being given demonstrations and advised what kind of insecticides to be used on cotton field to save crop.
Notably, whitefly attack had caused widespread damage to Bt cotton varieties in Punjab and Haryana last year.
In Punjab, 1.36 lakh hectares out of total 4.50 lakh hectares of cotton acreage was ravaged by whitefly attack last season and the output had dropped by 40 per cent due to large scale pest attack.This time the whitefly attack was spotted on cotton crop which was planted near orchards in Abohar which is known for Kinnow fruit.
“This time, the attack was visible on crops sown near orchards as fruit crop provided conducive conditions to allow the pest to spread its attack,” official said.
Notably, because of fear of whitefly attack, cotton area in Punjab saw one of the biggest decline in current season as crop area under this Kharif crop shrunk to 2.56 lakh hectares as against 4.50 lakh hectares last season.
Lashing out at the SAD-BJP government, Punjab Congress spokesperson and MLA from Abohar Sunil Jakhar said, "The whitefly attack, the second year in a row, has exposed the tall claims of Parkash Singh Badal led government on taking measures to protect cotton crop from whitefly which had caused severe damage to crop last year.
"I have seen in my area that whitefly has damaged cotton in several villages in Abohar and now the farmers' input cost will go up," Jakahr said.
On Sunday, Punjab Additional Chief Secretary N S Kalsi visited several villages in Abohar and inspected crop affected by whitefly.
In the current Kharif season, massive training programmes were conducted in cotton growing areas of Punjab, persuading growers to timely sow recommended varieties of crop, along with other steps to prevent massive crop damage.
Besides, the state had even hired trained 500 youths who possessed farm knowledge for educating growers through training camps to protect their crop from pests including whitefly.
