As many as 5,780,000 acres have been brought under cotton crop against target of 6,000,000 acres in Punjab, out of which 4,893,000 acres consists of core areas of cotton crop. This was disclosed in a meeting to review cotton crop situation here at Central Cotton Research Institute, said a spokesman of the Punjab Agriculture Department here on Thursday. Director General Agriculture (Ext. & A.R) Punjab, Dr Anjum Ali told the meeting that decrease in area of cotton crop is due to increase in area brought under sugarcane crop. He said that area under sugarcane crop has increased as 1.8 million acre this year as compared to area of 1.5 million acre last year. He further revealed that attack of Army Worm has been observed on cotton crop which was sown in March whereas the crop sown in May is safe from its attack. The experts were of the view that current atmospheric temperature is quite favourable for attack of Boll Worms. However, cotton crop has been saved against these insect pests due to cultivation of BT cotton on large scale in Punjab. Director Cotton in his briefing stated that there is no BT variety in the world which provides 100 percent immunity against Army Worm. Therefore, to save cotton crop from Army Worm attack farmers should adopt better crop management practices, conduct pest scouting twice a week and use spray of appropriate pesticides as recommended by local agricultural functionary in case of its insurgence. Farmers demanded that BT cotton varieties should be given legal cover for which letter is pending with National Bio-Safety Committee at federal level. The meeting was attended by Dr Noor-ul-Islam, Director General Agriculture (Research) Punjab, Dr Anjum Ali, Director General Agriculture (Ext. & A.R) Punjab, Dr Abid Mehmood, Director Cotton, Dr Muhammad Saleem, Director Entomology, Muhammad Zahid, Director Central Cotton Research Institute Multan, M. Rafiq Akhtar, Director Agricultural Information Punjab, Dr Zafar Qureshi, Director Bio-Technology, representatives of NIBGE and many progressive farmers as well as field extension workers.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 07:34:13 +0000
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