No pest threat to crops in Moga: Farm experts

Tribune News Service

Moga, August 14

A team of experts of the Punjab Agriculture Department visited Ghal Kalan, Duneke and other villages in the district to monitor cotton and paddy crops. They found that the occurrence of insects and pests was below the economic threshold level (ETL), which was a good sign for the farmers in the area. There were no issues with paddy.

The team was led by Plant Protection Officer, Moga, Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, who said there were reports of damage to cotton crop by whitefly and pink bollworm in Muktsar, Bathinda, Mansa and Fazilka districts, but in Moga no such damage had been reported.

The experts asked the farmers to conduct regular surveillance of their crop. “We have drafted a schedule of pesticide/insecticide sprays for the pest-infested cotton fields, which must be sprayed only if the occurrence of insects and pests is above the ETL, that is, if the farmers witness 4 to 6 larvae on a single leaf of cotton crop,” the experts explained.

“Do not allow cotton crop to suffer from lack of water during the flowering and fruiting stages, otherwise a lot of shedding of flowers and bolls will take place resulting in poor yield,” said Dr Brar and advised the farmers to four times spray 2 per cent potassium nitrate (2 kg potassium nitrate in 100 litres of water) at weekly intervals starting from flower initiation to get higher yield of cotton.

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