Cotton crop spread over three lakh hectares has been damaged in Punjab due to whitefly infestation, the government said on Tuesday. During the Kharif season this year, whitefly infestation was reported in cotton crop in Punjab and Haryana.
The Punjab government has reported damage to cotton crop in 3.32 lakh hectares, especially in eight cotton growing districts of Fazilka, Bhatinda, Mansa, Shri Muktsar Sahib, Sangrur, Barnala, Faridkot and Moga, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said during Question Hour. He said the Haryana government has ordered a special ‘gridawari’ (record of land cultivation) to assess the losses in cotton due to whitefly attack. The two governments have so far not submitted memorandum of financial assistance under National Disaster Response Fund, Singh said.
His deputy in the ministry Sanjeev Balyan said the central government monitored the pest situation in the country and sends advisories to the states for effective action. Experts are also sent for advising the government and the farming community to tackle pests as they can cause serious damage to crops, he added.
Erratic weather played a crucial role in the growth of the whitefly. If the temperature had been lower in the winter, it would have kept the incidence down, as ground frost helps to break the whitefly’s life cycle. Punjab has announced a relief package of Rs 600 crores for farmers affected but farmers say this would amount to about Rs 8,000 an acre, against their actual cost of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 an acre.
