Yellow rust outbreak worries wheat farmers of Una district

Our Correspondent

Una, March 30

The outbreak of yellow rust fungal disease in standing wheat crop has been a cause of worry for the farmers of Una district. Una, also known as the ‘food bowl of the state’, has about 60,000 hectares of agriculture land and wheat is the main crop during the rabi season here.

The yellow rust is caused by fungal species of Puccinia, which thrives in cool and moist weather conditions that prevailed in most parts of the district during the last one month. Leaves get covered with yellow powdery fungus that derives its food from the plant. If untreated, the yield loss could touch 40 to 50 per cent, besides leading to darkening of the grain skin.

Una Deputy Director of Agriculture Department Kulbhushan Dhiman said the situation had now stabilised with an initial spurt about three weeks ago. Farmers had been advised to spray fungicide to fight the yellow rust disease.

Since the disease is carried to the next generation through spores, which get deposited on seeds, it is not safe to store seeds which have earlier been infected with yellow rust.

District Agriculture Officer Ramesh Kumar said data was being collected from the field to assess the extent of damage caused to the standing wheat crop.

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