Pink bollworm attack on cotton at alarming levels, farmers panic

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September 23, 2021 Bathinda: The pink bollworm attack on cotton crop in Punjab has been found to be much beyond earlier anticipated. Over one fourth area in biggest cotton growing districts of Bathinda and Mansa are disturbed on the count though earlier the attack was felt in around 10-15% area in these districts. The pest attack has also caused damage to the crop in border district of Fazilka and Muktsar but with less intensity.
In some of the districts in Bathinda, Maur, Sangat blocks, the damage is found to be above 50% and at some places touching up to 60-70%, the fact even the state agriculture department officials too have conceded. The economic threshold level (ETL) has been found to be above 10 adults per leaf while the permissible limit is up to five adults.
With the pink bollworm attack turning to alarming levels, the farmers have panicked and resorting to even un recommended spray to control it but are not getting relief. Cotton has been sown in 3.04 lakh hectares in Punjab and 1.70 lakh hectares (56% of total) was sown in these two districts. The attack though was noticed in last week of August in Bathinda and Mansa, but it could not be contained in nearly a month and instead has been increasing by the day.
Farmer Gurcharan Singh of Bhamme Khurd village in Mansa ploughed his cotton crop in two acres on Wednesday. Gurcharan said despite spending on extra sprays the pest remained intact and had damaged the crop. With no other option he ploughed the crop. “The attack of pink bollworm is wide spread and if not contained at the earliest, more farmers may follow suit and as there is no time left to go in for another crop than sowing wheat in a month’ time, the farmers will have to suffer immense losses. We want government to fully compensate farmers for the damage being caused by pest attack,” said farm group BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) Mansa district president Ram Singh Bhainibagha.

The state agriculture department officials too are on their toes. The department director has visited a number of villages on Bathinda on Wednesday. “We had got a survey conducted last week and today I visited the villages where damage to crop was found to be more. The damage is varying from village to village and field to field. In all, it could be over 15% in Bathinda and Mansa and there are no reports of damage from Fazilka and Muktsar. Sprays are being recommended to farmers,” department director Sukhdev Singh. He added that after getting ground report, the department will prepare a report on Thursday or by Friday and will provide the report to the state government to take any decision on the damage to cotton crop.
“Over 10 pests are found in many of the plants and in the entire field which are causing extensive damage to the crop. We have made sprays but despite that the pest is intact and eating up the plants,” said farmers Mohinder Singh and Gurdev Singh of village Jai Singh Wala in Bathinda.
The farmers from Sangat area in Bathinda fear a reset of 2015. They recalled the damage done to cotton crop six years ago. Then, the white fly attack had caused immense damage to the cotton crop and over 60% crop was damaged due to severe pest attack and many farmers facing losses had ended lives.


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