Red rot disease: Punjab minister asks for survey to assess damage to sugarcane crop

Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday asked district administrations of Gurdaspur and Jalandhar to conduct a survey to assess the damage caused to the sugarcane crop by red rot fungus disease.

Randhawa also asked the cooperation department to prepare a compressive report for the perusal of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who also holds the portfolio of agriculture, to work out an effective action plan in this matter.

Chairing a meeting to review the current situation that emerged after the outbreak of this disease, the minister directed the deputy commissioners to work in tandem with the Punjab Agricultural University, cane commissioner and others, to find ways and means to combat the disease to save the crop, according to an official statement.

Randhawa stressed the need to intensify research for exploring the factors that led to a sudden attack by fungus on sugarcane.

He appealed to the cane growers not to panic in the wake of disease rather he asked the authorities to identify the hotspot areas to effectively tackle the fungus.

Joining the deliberations through video conferencing, S K Pandey, principal scientist and head of sugarcane, Breading Institute, Regional Centre, Karnal, said this disease had already affected the sugarcane crop in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in the past due to the problem of waterlogging.

He, however, said that intensive research in this regard revealed that 'Co 0238' variety of sugarcane was mainly prone to this fungus and the farmers in these states who had suffered substantial losses were told not to grow this variety in future.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)