• Teams visiting cotton fields to conduct pest surveillance & guide farmers to take pest control measures, says Gurmeet Singh Khudian
• Three active spots of Pink Bollworm & eight spots of Whitefly found in Khuian Sarwar block
• *Officials concerned directed to ensure application of recommended pesticides in their presence*
Chandigarh, July 15:
In order to ensure regular monitoring of cotton crops to avert insects’ attack, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has formed as many as 128 pest surveillance teams under the supervision of two Joint Director level officers.
The teams have been constituted in the cotton districts including Sri Muktsar Sahib, Fazilka, Faridkot, Moga, Bathinda, Mansa, Barnala and Sangrur.
Disclosing this here today, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that these teams have been tasked to visit cotton fields and conduct pest surveillance, besides guiding the farmers to take pest control measures, whenever required.
He further informed that the Agriculture department teams have inspected the cotton fields of 73 villages in the Fazilka district on Monday and found three active spots of Pink Bollworm and eight active spots of Whitefly in Khuian Sarwar block. The concerned officials were directed to ensure application of the recommended pesticides in their presence.
“To spread the message at the grassroots level, the Agriculture department has also organized Farmers Awareness camps in 989 villages in the major cotton districts to sensitize the farmers regarding practices for cotton cultivation and effective management against various cotton insect/pests and other diseases”, the Agriculture Minister added.
Urging the farmers to follow the advice of the Agriculture experts and use only the recommended pesticides, S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that Agriculture department is pulling out all the stops to ensure the welfare of the state farmers as per the commitment of Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab Government. As many as 6000 demonstrations of cotton crop covering an area of 60,000 hectares have been laid down in cotton districts under the crop diversification plan during kharif season 2024 and the farmers will be provided incentives for inputs according to the norms, he informed.
Director Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Jaswant Singh informed that the department’s officials have visited the cotton fields of farmers. Chief Agriculture Officer, Mansa reported that a team of the department visited the cotton field of farmer Balkar Singh at village Sahnewali and a minor pink bollworm attack was found in the field and the farmer was advised to use recommended pesticides and the situation is under control. In village Khiali Chehlanwali, field of farmer Jagdev Singh S/o Dharam Singh was surveyed and no pink bollworm was detected and whitefly population was below Economic Threshold Level (ETL) at 4 adults per leaf, he added.
The Director Agriculture further informed that cotton field of farmer Gurpreet Singh S/o Ajaib Singh of village Patti Sadiq was also visited by the department officials and they have reported that the crop is in good condition. Pink bollworm, Whitefly and other pests were below ETL.
