Central team arrives in Punjab to assess cotton crop loss

A team from Union Ministry of Agriculture today arrived here today to assess the damage caused to cotton crop by whitefly attack.
The team was led by Union Ministry of Agriculture- Additional Secretary Ashok Dalvai and senior plant protection Advisor Sunil Kumar.
The officials held a meeting with the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and later with officials of the Agriculture department.
They also held meeting with representatives of farmers' organisations- BKU (Lakhowal) and BKU ( Rajewal).
BKU (Rajewal) President Balbir Singh Rajewal said that he had demanded higher compensation for cotton crop loss caused by pest attack, saying the current compensation amount was quite less.

He further said that funds should also be provided to farmers for sowing next Rabi crop wheat as they were not having enough resource because of failure of earlier wheat and cotton crops.
The team members will go to PAU at Ludhiana tomorrow to meet experts and will also be visiting fields in Malwa region, he said.