Scientists study impact of whitefly, leaf curl on cotton

Sushil Manav

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Tribune News Service

Sirsa, August 21

Worried over the increasing damage by Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCuV) and Whiteflies, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) has set up five trial locations for “Bt Cotton Monitoring against CLCuV and Whiteflies” in five cotton rich districts of the North.

A team of experts led by Dr KR Kranthi, Director, Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) completed its two-day monitoring visit at Sirsa and Hisar in Haryana, Sriganganagar in Rajasthan and Faridkot and Bathinda in Punjab on Thursday.

The 17-member team included experts from the CICR, Ministry of Agriculture, cotton scientists from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University (CCSHAU), Hisar, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana and Rajasthan Agriculture University, Bikaner, Joint Director (Cotton) from the three states besides representatives from four big Bt cotton seed manufacturers.

“We are studying the impact of CLCuV and whiteflies on as many as 130 hybrids of Bt cotton. Of these, 96 are already in the market while 34 are still to be released,” said Dr Dilip Monga, Head of the northern regional station of CICR at Sirsa, who is a team member.

The impact of the whiteflies and CLCuD is monitored jointly because the former is the only known vector for the spread of virus responsible for the latter. Studies during the past four years have revealed that CLCuV has been causing 5 to 35 per cent damage to cotton yield while whiteflies too have been causing potential damage by sucking sap from the leaves of cotton.

Dr Monga said trial locations on one- and- a- half acre each have been set up at the five locations.

Two rows each of the seeds of 130-odd Bt hybrids provided by the manufacturers were sown in replicated experiments on all the five locations.

“Monitoring for the impact of CLCuV and whiteflies is done by scientists through susceptible checks and comparative evaluation of different hybrids,” he said.

He said that the results will be available after decoding by the end of the season and shall go a long way in recommending Bt cotton hybrids tolerant to CDCuD and whiteflies.

This will help farmers improve their productivity and income, Dr Monga said.

INLD MLA demands relief to farmers for whitefly damage 

Fatehabad: INLD MLA Balwan Singh Daulatpuria today expressed concern at the heavy damage to cotton and guar crop in the district due to an attack of whiteflies and demanded compensation to affected farmers. He said he would raise the issue in the monsoon session of the state Assembly and has also written to CM Manohar Lal Khattar asking him to order a special girdawari for this purpose. Talking to the media here today, he said that the severity of the attack by whiteflies was unprecedented and both the crops had been equally hit. He alleged that owing to the insensitive attitude of the BJP regime, the condition of farmers had gone from bad to worse. “The farmers, including women family members were cane charged when they demanded urea for their wheat crop and when their crop was damaged due to hail a large number of farmers committed suicides due to insensitivity and biased attitude of the government in relief disbursal,” he said.