Punjab deputy CM orders immediate completion of special girdawari to assess cotton crop loss

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday directed to complete the work of special girdawari immediately to assess the actual damage to cotton crop by pink bollworm infestation.

Randhawa directed the financial commissioner (development) to ensure that the affected farmers be compensated before Diwali after completion of the special girdawari, so that the losses incurred by the farmers of the cotton belt could be compensated.

In a statement here, the state's deputy chief minister said that after the attack of pink bollworm on the cotton crop in the Malwa belt, the affected areas were earlier visited under the leadership of the chief minister.

Agriculture Minister Randeep Singh Nabha said that from the next season of the cotton crop, mating disruption technology will be introduced to check infestation of pink bollworm.

High incidence of pink bollworm was reported on BG11 cotton yield in the Malwa region, which had adversely affected the crop yield, said the statement.

The current situation of the cotton farmers in Punjab is grave due to pink bollworm as most of the farmers have uprooted the crop and are demanding compensation from the government.

The minister directed all the department officials to introduce mating disruption technology which is considered the gold standard in crop protection and is well known in western countries and has been used in crops like grapes and apples over the years.

Several trials of this technology with the state agriculture universities and with farmers over the past four years have been done that show significant results across multiple states in India.

Punjab Agricultural University has also been conducting the trials of the product and has seen significant benefits to the farmers.

The technology is no-pump no-spray and the product is in the form of a paste which has to be applied by the farmer in three applications at a 30 days interval, he said.

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