Govt ready with strategy to prevent whitefly pest in cotton

The government is ready with a detailed strategy to prevent recurrence of whitefly pest attack on cotton crop in the next season, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today.
"We held several meetings on this issue with all the stakeholders and a comprehensive strategy to prevent recurrence of the pest during next season has been planned," Singh said addressing the 87th AGM of the ICAR Society.
During the kharif 2015 season, unprecedented heavy infestation of whitefly on cotton was documented in Punjab and Haryana, resulting in significant damage to the crop, he said.
There was a severe outbreak of whitefly attack due to deficient rainfall coupled with hot, humid and cloudy weather during June-July last year, he said this in a statement.

The Minister further informed that crop damage in Haryana was relatively less as nearly 50 per cent cotton area in the state was sown on time whereas in Punjab, sowing in over 75 per cent of the crop area was delayed due to late harvesting of wheat.
Approved in 2002, Bt cotton is the only genetically modified crop allowed for commercial cultivation in India and over 90 per cent of the country cotton area is sown under it.
Asserting that Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is committed to overcome farm constraints to make Indian agriculture sustainable and profitable, he said the Council has revised the mandates and formulated Vision-2050 for all its institutions with an eye on the future needs.

The Minister also praised ICAR's agricultural research and education institutions for successfully generating and introducing technologies to boost farm production and incomes in 2015.