Chandigarh, January 15
The Punjab Government today directed the District Chief Agriculture Officers to step up monitoring of the wheat crop affected by yellow rust in the state. The move came following more reports of yellow rust attack on wheat crop, especially in the Kandi belt and Banur area, near Rajpura.

The District Chief Agriculture Officers have also been directed to call back on duty all those Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) who are on leave and ask them to guide farmers in tackling the disease.

An alert has also been sounded in certain parts of Haryana following detection of yellow rust attack in 7-8 villages of Yamunanagar and three of Karnal district. There are reports of the fungal disease spreading its tentacles to more areas in the state.

Punjab Financial Commissioner (Development) Suresh Kumar said fungicides had been rushed to all districts to enable farmers to spray their fields in case they detected an attack of yellow rust. “We are taking this disease seriously because the prevailing weather conditions are highly favourable for its quick spread to new areas,” Suresh Kumar said. At a meeting of the District Chief Agriculture Officers here today, he directed them to personally tour the affected villages in their respective jurisdiction to take stock of the situation.

Experts say yellow rust attacks wheat crop in two spell-first in January and then in March. The farmers need to remain extra vigilant in this regard, they add.

Project Director of the Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, Dr Indu Sharma said in case the attack on the crop was not detected in time, the loss to the crop could be up to 80 per cent. Dr Indu, who has visited some fields affected by the disease in Punjab and Haryana, said there was a need to check the attack at this stage. In Haryana, it had spread to new areas in Yamunangar and Karnal districts, she said. Googlu village, near Mustafabad, was the latest addition to the list of areas where the crop had been affected by the disease, she added.

Amardeep Singh Cheema, Director of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), said the ICAR had been told to ascertain the reasons behind the recurrence of the disease in the Kandi belt.