The Tribune Impact: 128 surveillance teams formed to check pest attack on cotton crop
Chandigarh, July 15
The Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has formed 128 pest surveillance teams under the supervision of two Joint Director-level officers. The move comes on the day The Tribune highlighted the issue of re-emergence of pink bollworm and whitefly in cotton fields in the Malwa region.
Will also guide farmers
- The teams have been formed under the supervision of two Joint Director-level officers
- These will cover cotton districts of Muktsar, Fazilka, Faridkot, Moga, Bathinda, Mansa, Barnala and Sangrur
- Tasked with visiting cotton fields and conducting pest surveillance, these teams will guide farmers to take pest-control measures, if needed
Whitefly attack in muktsar
A team of scientists from the Punjab Agricultural University’s (PAU) Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) on Monday toured some villages in Muktsar district to inspect the growing cotton crop. The team claimed the pink bollworm attack was under control in most of the villages, but the whitefly attack was observed to be above the economic threshold limit (ETL) in some fields. Dr Gurmel Singh, Assistant Professor at KVK, said the farmers should keep an eye on their growing crop and use pesticides as per the recommendations.
Fields inspected in 73 Fazilka villages
Agriculture Department teams inspected cotton fields in 73 villages of Fazilka district on Monday and found three active spots of pink bollworm and eight active spots of whitefly in Khuian Sarwar block. Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister
The teams have been constituted in the cotton districts of Muktsar, Fazilka, Faridkot, Moga, Bathinda, Mansa, Barnala and Sangrur.
Disclosing this here today, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said the teams had been tasked to visit cotton fields and conduct pest surveillance, besides guiding the farmers to take pest-control measures, whenever required.
He said Agriculture Department teams inspected the cotton fields in 73 villages of Fazilka district on Monday and found three active spots of pink bollworm and eight active spots of whitefly in Khuian Sarwar block. The officials concerned were directed to ensure application of the recommended pesticides in their presence.
“To spread the message at the grassroots level, the Agriculture Department also organised farmer awareness camps in 989 villages in major cotton districts to sensitise growers as regards practices for cotton cultivation and effective management against various cotton insect/pests and other diseases,” the minister added.
Urging the farmers to follow the advice of the agricultural experts and use only the recommended pesticides, Khudian said the Agriculture Department was doing everything to ensure the welfare of the farmers.
Director Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Jaswant Singh said department officials had visited cotton fields. The Chief Agriculture Officer, Mansa, reported that a team of the department visited the cotton field of farmer Balkar Singh at Sahnewali village and a minor pink bollworm attack was found on the crop and the farmer was advised to use recommended pesticides and the situation was under control. Farmer Jagdev Singh’s field was surveyed at Khiali Chehlanwali village and no pink bollworm was detected there. Whitefly population was also below the economic threshold level (ETL), he added.
The Director (Agriculture) further said that the cotton field of farmer Gurpreet Singh at Patti Sadiq village was also visited by the department officials. They concluded that pink bollworm, whitefly and other pests were below ETL, he added.
