White Fly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.) attack in Cotton in Punjab & Haryana during Kharif 2015

Attack of whitefly in cotton has been reported from cotton growing area of  Malwa region of Punjab and Sirsa and adjoining areas of Haryana during Kharif 2015. Cotton is grown in about 4.5 lakh ha area of Punjab and 6.0 lakh ha area of Haryana.

Advisories on plant protection have been issued to Director Agriculture, Punjab on 13.08.2015 and 24.08.2015 and to Director Agriculture, Haryana on 25.08.2015.

A team comprising of Dr. K. S. Kapoor, DD (Ento), Hqrs. and Mr. Devendra Kumar, AD (Ento) and Dr. B. D. Sharma, APPO, CIPMC, Jallandhar from the Dte. of PPQ&S, & Extension Officers from Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Punjab visited cotton growing areas during 26.08.2015 to 28.08.2015 in Dujana - Behlwa – Hansi – Hissar – Fathebad – Sirsa – Fazilka -  Ferozpur – Mukatsar – Bhatinda – Mansa – Patiala – Jind - Rohtak for surveillance and assessment of the situation with respect to white fly attack in cotton.

In majority of the fields the cotton crop was in its flowering - square formation to boll development phase during the survey period. The team observed 03 - 30 adults or nymphs of Cotton white fly (WF) per leaf which exceeded the Economic Threshold level (ETL) of 5-10 adults/nymphs per leaf. Honeydew secreted by white fly resulted into sooty mould formation which blocked the photosynthesis and eventually 0.5 to 30 percent plants dried up due to this secondary infection. The team also noticed thickening of leaf veins and curling of leaves due to Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) infection ranged between 0 to 2 percent in most of the cotton fields. It was also recorded that despite of repeated pesticides sprays on the crop the beneficial bio-agents, such as spiders, dragon flies, damsel flies and the chrysopids were in abundance and active in all the surveyed fields.

Issues related with Integrated Pest Management –

1.      Food security and Food safety should go side by side. One hand we have to ensure the availability of sufficient food to ever increasing Human and cattle population and another side we have to provide them safe food which is fit for their consumption. For this purpose we have to grow safe food. Recently Govt. of India has announced Grow Safe Food campaign in very big way throughout country by spreading this message among people through the placement of hoardings at different prominent places. The time has come to convey this message among the people. 

2.  The farm gate samples of fruit and vegetables submitted to identified laboratories or analysis of pesticide residue under the Scheme, “Monitoring of Pesticide Residue at National level” (MPRNL), reveal that only 3%  samples are found having pesticide residue above MRL.

3.      The samples of chemical pesticides analyzed for their quality control purpose revealed that only 2.5% pesticide samples found spurious.

4.      To ensure the availability of bio-pesticide at farmer doorsteps and quality control of bio pesticides is a big challenge.

5.      Farmers safety must also be ensured.

6.      The production of bio-pesticide is also an important issue for which we have to simplify the methods of production of bio-pesticides in such a way, so that we may provide them at doorsteps of farmers. The concept of “IPM Seva Kendras” which is going to be developed will be quite useful for this purpose.

7.      We have to promote certain traditional non chemical methods for pest management to avoid indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides.

8.      The farmers are not Entomologists and Pathologists but they have lot of experience of crop production and protection. Only wrong practices adopted by the farmers must be identified and they must be trained about their alternatives.

9.      The farmers are handling poisonous samples without using any safety device which leads certain occupational problems. Hence the farmers health safety must be taken care of on priority basis. The pesticide company producing pesticides must provide the safety gadgets to the farmers along with the pesticide containers.

10.      The unnecessary spraying/use of chemical pesticides must be avoided to ensure the production of safe Agri products.    

11.  No package of practice is recommending the over use of chemical pesticides. We have to take this task to convince farmers to avoid over use of pesticides.   

12.  Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Integrated Nutrient Management should be done simultaneously. We recommend the pesticides and fertilizer in need base manner, not in blanket manner after assessing their demands. If we will spray pesticides as per their need and recommendation given by CIB&RC, they will not be harmful but their indiscriminate use is harmful. Such practices must be discouraged.

13.  The lack of proper extension knowledge or work is the main reason of using   indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides.

14.  50% of chemical sprayed in the crop goes in water bodies and rest goes in the soil. Hence, we have to trained the farmers about the method of application of pesticides i.e  on right crop, on right pest, on right time, on right dose with right method.

15.  The concept of safety issue came in few years back in Kerala when Shri Jyotilal, IAS launched a programme (Safe to Eat food) in Kerala State & a Lab for analysis for pesticide residue established at Belari. The result of which shows 2-3% samples are having pesticide residue above MRL. We don’t have method to detect pesticide residue at Farm gate level. Health is Wealth. The soil health must also be taken care-of along with the human and cattle health to grow healthy food.