Disposing of damaged cotton bolls can prevent attack: Experts

Appeal to farmers to shun practice of storing these in fields

BQ: need to devise strategy

There are space constraints with regard to storage of these bolls but farmers have to devise some strategy if they want to protect their crops from the pest attacks

Sameer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 28

Discarding pink bollworm-infested (damaged) cotton bolls effectively can play a pivotal role in preventing crop damage in future, agricultural experts have said.

If experts are to be believed, the “erroneous” practice of storing infested cotton bolls in the fields and adjacent to their houses (to be used later for burning for cooking purpose and warming during winters) by cotton farmers had triggered the pink bollworm attack on a “massive” scale this season. When stored by farmers, the monophagous pest (which eats only cotton) inside the infested cotton bolls is at the pupa stage (third stage of lifecycle) that goes into hibernation inside the damaged boll during winter season only to get re-active around April when cotton sowing begins. The pest (pupa) then grows into an adult moth (butterfly) that hovers over freshly sown cotton crop and lays on an average 80-100 eggs on the plant. Ploughing the damaged bolls in the fields itself or storing it a distant place could have mitigated the damage caused by the pink bollworm, experts said.

Talking to The Tribune, Manjinder Singh, Agriculture Development Officer (ADO), Bathinda, said, “A judicious handling of the infected cotton bolls could have minimised the damage to the crop to a large extent. Last year, the damage was quite less but despite spreading awareness and exhorting farmers to adhere to ethical farming practices, not many of them took it seriously. A sizable number of cotton farmers store (by making heaps) infested cotton bolls in their fields or near their houses which aggravates the risk of an attack during the next season. Farmers use these damaged bolls for burning during the winter season. There are space constraints with regard to storage of these bolls but farmers have to devise some strategy if they want to protect their crops from the pest attacks.”

The ADO said, “Separating it from the plant while breaking every damaged cotton boll is a laborious and time-consuming process while ploughing it directly in the fields will result in its decomposition and later act as manure for the next crop. We have been holding awareness camps at regular intervals to sensitise farmers on preventive measures to keep the pink bollworm attack at bay.”

While farmers are alleging the quality of seeds was not good and that led to the attack, the experts said the bollworm had developed resistance against the gene of the BT cotton seed variety used in recent years.

Sources, however, said by pinning the entire blame on farmers’ lack of awareness or unethical practices, the department could not absolve itself of its responsibilities. After a low-scale attack during the previous season, the latter could have put in place better preventive measures to minimise the scale of damage this season.