Yellow rust attack: Agri team visits disease-hit fields

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 7

A high-level team of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on Friday visited Mansurpur and Badala villages in Adampur block and took stock of the attack of the yellow rust disease on wheat crop.

The team comprising assistant director Vikrant Singh and Dr Anju Vaishnav from the Directorate of Wheat Development, Ghaziabad, visited the affected fields where the farmers had sown HD 3086 wheat variety. The team talked with the farmers who informed that they had purchased the variety from a private firm.

The team said the variety was very much capable to tackle the disease. But despite that the symptoms of the disease had appeared on the crop. They said the chemical test of the plant would be carried out to ascertain the type of variety whether it was HD 3086 or not.

Meanwhile, Dr Nazar Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, said special teams had been formed in all 10 blocks of the district. The team members have been directed to intensify the field visits.

The Chief Agriculture Officer said: “The yellow rust is a disease which causes losses in crop yield and disease appears as yellow coloured, powdery linear stripes on the leaves”.

The farmers must visit and monitor their wheat fields daily and in case they find symptoms of yellowing on wheat leaves, they must spray their wheat crop with 200 ml per acre propiconazole, he said.

Dr Nazar Singh advised the farmers to keep a close vigil on the fields and if symptoms appeared they should spray without any delay.

He also stated that the district had around 1.70 lakh hectares area under wheat cultivation.