Moong crop under threat of mosaic virus

HISAR: Kharif pulse crop moong is affected severely by viral infection across the state which can damage it and lead to reduction in yield

Updated At : 06:33 AM Aug 28, 2016 IST

Leaves of moong turn yellow in a field in Hisar district. Photo: Bansi Lal Basniwal

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, August 27

Kharif pulse crop moong is affected severely by viral infection across the state, which can damage it and lead to reduction in yield.

Officials of the Agriculture Department said the mosaic virus had spread in the moong crop across the region, maintaining there was no pesticide to control it.

Hisar district has the largest area under moong crop this season. Farmers in the neighbouring Fatehabad, Sirsa and Bhiwani districts have also sown the crop. In moong, farmers have found a replacement for cotton, which was damaged by whitefly last year. Moong is not among the crops that have been insured under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

Virender Singh Punia, a farmer in Budak village where a large number of farmers adopted moong this season, said the crop was now two months’ old and its leaves had started turning yellow. “We consulted agriculture experts, who revealed it’s a mosaic virus.”

Dr Rajiv Bhatia, agriculture development officer (ADO) at Barwala in Hisar, said they found that around 90 per cent of the crop was affected by the virus. “The virus spread very fast in the humid conditions. We cannot recommend any pesticide, as the virus is resistant to it,” he said.