‘Whitefly damage to cotton crop unlikely to spread’

Cotton farmers in Punjab will not suffer as much as last year from the whitefly infestation as the attack on the crop this year is in a limited area and unlikely to spread, a senior official has said.

“The pest attack is directly related to dryness, and rain weakens it. This year, about 4,400 hectares got affected in the Fazilka district. With adequate rains, it will not spread further,” Agriculture Secretary SK Pattanayak told BusinessLine.

The Central team that visited the whitefly-affected districts has reported that the situation was under control as subsequent rains had washed away and restricted the movement of the flies.

But, it said that the situation needed monitoring.

Agriculture experts in the Central team have advised cotton farmers on measures to be taken to avoid the flies, the Secretary added.

It includes spraying certain new pesticides as the ones used earlier did not work in some cases.

In Punjab, 1.36 lakh hectares out of a total of 4.50 lakh hectares of cotton acreage was attacked by the whitefly last season and output had dropped by 40 per cent.

“The effect of the whitefly attack was damaging as rains last year were scarce. This year the case is different as we have had good rains,” said another official from the Agriculture Ministry.

Once bitten, twice shy, farmers have already started shifting from cotton to other crops such as pulses this year.

While cotton acreage in the country till July 2 this kharif season has gone down to 86.86 lakh hectares from 99.52 lakh hectares in the same period last year, in Punjab it has declined to 2.45 lakh hectares from 4.5 lakh hectares.

“The decline in acreage under cotton is also due to low global prices. Farmers in some States are finding switching over to other crops more lucrative,” the official added.

Agriculture experts will keep monitoring the cotton crop in Punjab this year to ensure that whiteflies don’t cause further damage, he said.

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