Pink bollworm detected in 6 Bathinda villages; cotton growers worried, officials on alert
BATHINDA: Infestation of pink bollworm in at least six Bathinda villages has left the cotton growers and officials of the state agriculture department worried.
The agriculture department is on its toes as it is for the second consecutive year that the pest attack has been reported in the major cash crop of southern Punjab.
Experts and the agriculture department blame oil mills, cotton ginning units and a section of villagers for ignoring the laiddown protocol. They say Bollgard 2, or BG-2, Monsanto’s second-generation insecticidal technology for cotton, was considered to protect crops against the pink bollworm. But previous incidents from other states indicate that the variety may have developed resistance.
Director, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) regional research station, Bathinda, Paramjit Singh said the pest larvae are reaching the state with cottonseed consignments from south-west states, including Maharashtra and Karnataka.
“Oil mills and cotton ginning units across the state were asked to follow guidelines to ensure the pest do not entre fields from where it could harm the cotton crop. Farmers were also advised to remove cotton straw, which is used as firewood or consumed to energise brick kilns etc, completely from the fields,” he said.
A cotton grower from Gurusar Sainewala, about 25km from the district headquarters, said half of his 15-acre land has been found infested with pink bollworm. A sizeable stock of cotton straw was lying adjacent to his field on Wednesday.
“I had sown cotton seeds on April 16 and hoped of a good profit. But the pest attack at the flowering stage has dashed my hopes. A pheromone trap that uses chemicals secreted by insects to lure pests at my field is full of deadly pest. Use of sprays to contain the pest means additional cost and high vulnerability of crop yield loss,” he said.
Bathinda chief agriculture officer Dr BS Sidhu said intensive field surveillance has been initiated in the district. He said it is a challenging task to detect pink bollworm in time and control it through pesticides as it stays inside a cotton boll.
“In the last three days, our teams have spotted pink bollworm in six villages. All infected fields were sown early in mid-april and the pest is visible in the flowers. Advisory has been issued to farmers control the situation,” he said.
Principal entomologist of the PAU Vijay Kumar: “Normally the pest appears in cotton after 65-70 days of sowing. Cotton bolls look normal from the outside. But each infected boll has a pink bollworm inside. The worm eats cotton seeds and prevents the development of cotton staple fibre around it well before the boll opens,” he said.