Leafhopper attacks cotton, whitefly manageable

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 14

Attack of leafhopper (Jassid), a sap sucking pest, has been witnessed on cotton crop in Haryana during a recent survey carried out by scientists of the Sirsa-based Central Institute of Cotton Research (CISR) of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research.

The survey carried on August 2 and 3 in Sirsa, Hisar and Jind districts, all known for their cotton production, has also revealed the presence of whitefly, another pest that has been causing damage to crop too often, but the population of this pest is so far below economic threshold level (ETL) in most of the fields.

Dr Dilip Monga, head of the CICR, said that during the two-day survey, as many as 40 locations were visited by the scientists and in more than 50 per cent of the fields the population of leafhoppers was well above the ETL of two insect per leaf.

“Jassid injects toxins into leaves while feeding which results in abnormal changes in leaves causing damage to the crop. The damage is often described in four grades – yellowness of the leaves in the first grade, curling of leaves with more yellowness in the second grade and increase in injury and complete drying of the crop in the third and fourth grade respectively,” said Dr Monga.

He said grade two damage is considered threshold level for intervention and use of sprays.

Meanwhile, the survey has also found presence of whitefly on almost all locations visited by it, but barring 3 or 4 locations, the population of the insect has been found below the ETL of 6 to 8 whiteflies per leaf.

Whitefly causes damage to cotton crop in two ways – directly by sucking sap from the leaves and indirectly, by infecting the crop with cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV), because the insect acts as vector for the virus.

Though whitefly attacks cotton crop almost every year, an extensive damage had been caused to cotton crop in the region due to this pest in 2015.

As per figures of the Haryana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, cotton crop has been sown on 6.65 lakh hectares in Haryana this year with prominent cotton producing districts being Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jind and Bhiwani.