Agri Dept asked to adopt cotton plots

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 18

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has asked the Agriculture Department to adopt 100 cotton plots damaged by the whitefly attack in every village of Mansa, Bathinda, Muktsar and Fazilka districts.

He directed the department to use these plots as demonstration farms to educate farmers about integrated pest management (IPM), a government spokesperson said after a meeting convened by the CM here today.

Deputy Commissioners and Chief Agricultural Officers from Mansa, Bathinda, Muktsar, Fazilka, Sangrur, Barnala and Faridkot districts participated in the meeting.

The spokesperson said that at least 18.1 hectares out of 3.82 lakh hectares under cotton cultivation had been damaged by whitefly.

In Bathinda, the affected area was a mere 3.6 hectares out of 1.4 lakh hectares while, in Mansa, 10.2 hectares out of 86,010 hectares were damaged. Of the 64,608 hectares in Muktsar, 1.6 hectares were hit by the whitefly attack.

In Fazilka, the damage was 2 per cent of 74,655 hectares. And in Barnala, 0.7 per cent of 5,460 hectares was damaged. No loss was reported in Sangrur, Faridkot and Moga.