Leafhopper threat looms over cotton crop in 5 districts of Punjab

Punjab’s “white gold” crop is under attack by Jassid, commonly called leafhopper.

The attack has been seen in five of the cotton growing districts of the state — Moga, Bathinda, Mansa, Abohar and Fazilka.

Though officials of the state Agriculture Department say the attack is only in a few fields, the South Asia Biotechnology Centre has issued a warning of leafhopper attack in North India, threatening cotton crop. Cotton farmers have been spraying insecticides to deal with insect infestation and also to ward off whitefly and pink bollworm that devours their crops each year.

“A recent farmers’ field survey conducted under Project Bandhan by the South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC), Jodhpur, has revealed an alarming infestation of green leafhoppers (jassid), commonly known as ‘hara tela’ on cotton across major cotton-growing districts of Haryana (Hisar, Fatehabad, Sirsa), Punjab (Mansa, Bathinda, Abohar, Fazilka) and Rajasthan (Hanumangarh, Sri Ganganagar),” said Dr Bhagirath Chaudhary from the Centre. He was part of the field team led by Dr Dilip Monga, Dr Naresh, Deepak Jakhar and KS Bhardwaj, who have just conducted the field visits. They have reported infestation levels of 12-15 leafhoppers per leaf, significantly above the economic threshold level (ETL).

Notably, the field survey not only reported the alarming number of leafhopper per leaf but also cotton leaf injuries exceeding the ETL, based on the damage-grading system, added Dr Chaudhary.

“This year, the area under cotton crop has increased from 99,600 hectares last year to 1.19 lakh hectares this year. Since the attack by the white fly this year is minimal, we are expecting the yield to be around 650 kg per hectare this year. Last year, due to the whitefly attack, the yield had dropped to 440 kg/hectare,” informed a senior officer in the agriculture department.

The officer insisted that the leafhopper attack was in a few fields and was also witnessed in six fields of Moga, though the South Asia Biotechnology Centre had not mentioned this district. However, cotton farmers say that due to the incessant sprays of insecticides, their cost of cultivation is shooting up. Balkar Singh, a cotton grower from Khiali Chahianwali village near Sardulgarh, said the flowering was yet to start and they have already sprayed insecticides thrice. “As the crop matures, we will have to increase sprays to save the crop. This impacts our profit margins,” he said.