Patiala: Farm experts visit Sanaur to assess damage to tomato crop

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 19

A team of experts today visited Sanaur in Patiala district to assess damage caused by the late blight to tomato and potato crops.

The teams comprising Sandeep Singh, Assistant Director, Horticulture, Gurupdesh Kaur, in charge, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rauni, and officials from the Central Integrated Pest Management Centre visited the affected fields. Besides officials of the Revenue Department also conducted girdawari of the damaged crops.

Around 50 per cent of the tomato crop in Fatehpur Rajputa, Khudda Lalena, Asarpur and Kartarpur villages has been hit by the late blight. Manvinder Singh of Fatehpur Rajputa said, “Tomato variety ‘Heemshikhar’ suffered the maximum damage. Other varieties have been less affected. Heemshikhar is popular among farmers due to its long-shelf life and profitability.”

Sandeep said, “The expert team visited several fields to assess the damage on tomato crop. So far, the spread of disease hasn’t been witnessed on potato and peas. We are compiling the report.”

Assistant Professor Sandeep Jain, Plant Pathology, PAU, said continuous advisories were issued to farmers about weather conditions becoming favourable for the outbreak of late blight attack on potato and tomato crops. In the past one month, the night temperature has remained between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius with high amount of humidity – close to 100 per cent. Besides rain and fog was also witnessed during the period.

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