Prevailing weather conditions may damage wheat crop

Farmers were today advised to monitor their wheat crop regularly, saying the prevailing conditions were conducive for the spread of fungal disease yellow rust.
"Present weather conditions are highly favourable for spread and development of yellow rust," said P S Sekhon, Head, Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University.
He said initial infection of yellow rust have already been observed in Ropar (Anandpur Sahib, Noorpur Bedi, Chamkaur Sahib blocks), Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Hoshiarpur (Mahilpur, Garhshankar, Dasuya, Bhunga blocks) and at few locations in SBS Nagar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot.
Sekhon said occurrence of rain and high velocity winds on January 12 might have helped in the spread of yellow rust to other places in Punjab and the symptoms of which are expected to be visible in farmer's fields during the current week.

He further said initial reports of occurrence of this disease at few locations in Patiala, Ludhiana and Sangrur has also been received.
"Since the prevailing weather conditions are favourable for this disease, more reports regarding occurrence of yellow rust from other places can come in future as well," he said.

Sekhon advised the farmers to monitor the wheat crop regularly and in case symptoms of the disease are noticed in the field, then spray the crop with any one of the recommended fungicide like Tilt or Shine or Stilt or Compass or Markzole or Bumper so as to prevent its further spread.

Farmers' body Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakunda) general
secretary Jagmohan Singh claimed that over 100 farmers and farm labourers had committed suicide in the state in last one month or so.
"A large number of suicide incidents go unnoticed in the state. Mounting debt and unprofitable farming is driving farmers to end their lives," Singh said while blaming the Akali government for not taking concrete measures to increase farmers' income.
With farmer suicides becoming a major political issue in the wake of next year polls, farm economists put the size of debt on rural household at Rs 72,000 crore from institutional and non-institutional sectors.

"There is an urgent need to ensure surplus income to farmers as 80-90 per cent of farmers are indebted in Punjab," said Satish Verma, Professor, RBI Chair, Chandigarh-based Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID).
He suggested a three-year moratorium on the recovery of outstanding debt by lenders in Punjab. "Banks should also refrain from adopting target based approach in lending to farmers as it sometimes put additional debt burden on farmers," he said.
Yesterday, Chief minister Badal had urged the Centre to rope in eminent agricultural experts and economists to suggest ways and means to arrest the trend of constantly dwindling profits from agriculture income due to unfriendly farmer policies when he was asked on Punjab being the second state after Maharashtra in farm suicides.