Whitefly attack looms large in cotton belt in Malwa area

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Bathinda, July 23

After nine years, the fear of whitefly attacks on cotton crops is back to haunt farmers of the cotton belt in the Malwa area, as the presence of sulking pests has been reported in some parts of Mansa, Bathinda, and Fazilka districts.

State Agriculture Department teams have visited various villages and held meetings with officials, asking the field officers to be vigilant. The teams have been directed to visit farmers in the fields to check the crop and recommend spray as per the situation.

The department has also been making announcements in villages through gurdwara loudspeakers, urging farmers to spray their crops as recommended by experts as whitefly attacks were on the rise.

Experts claimed hot and humid weather conditions were leading to pest infestations. They said against the state’s recommendations a large number of farmers grew moong crops during summer. They said it was another reason behind the pest infestation in the region.

Experts said the whitefly grew fast and remained under the leaf. They said it did not die until they were sprayed directly. They said the spray recommended by the agriculture department for pest control only worked at an early stage.

Farmers said the area under cotton had reduced drastically to an all-time low of about 97,000 hectares. They said the reason behind it was that farmers have shifted to paddy, pulses, and maize as successive governments have failed to contain pest attacks on cotton.

Dejected by the whitefly attack on his cotton crop, Kulwinder Singh of Bhagi Bander village in the district reportedly destroyed his crop on two acres.

In August–September 2015, nearly 60 per cent of the cotton crop sown on 4.21 hectares of land was damaged. Unable to bear the losses, some farmers ended their lives.

Bathinda Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) Jagseer Singh said, “Whitefly is quite rampant in the district, and it is due to the prolonged dry spell. Teams are visiting the fields and are recommending farmers spray the crop, which is quite effective in the early stages.”