Farmers Movement Archive

Fact-finding report disproves spurious seeds behind pink bollworm infestation in Punjab

The agriculture department has ruled out any role of spurious BT cotton seeds or substandard insecticides behind the widespread infestation of pink bollworm pest on the cotton crop in the south Malwa districts.In a fact-finding report submitted to the state government last weekend, the department has squarely blamed the cotton ginning factories and poor farm practices behind the worst ever pink bollworm pest attack in Punjab.Agriculture minister Randeep Singh Nabha confirmed receiving the report but declined to share its content.“The detailed report will be tabled in a cabinet meeting scheduled to be held later this week for compensation to affected cotton growers,” said the minister.Officials said Bathinda and Mansa are the worst-hit districts where 80% area under cotton crop has suffered 76-100% damage.Bathinda has the largest area of 96,000 hectares of Punjab under the cash crop whereas cotton was sown on 65,000 hectares in Mansa.BKU (Ekta Ughrahan) has been blaming the poor quality of seeds and insecticides for the pest infestation.BKU (Ekta Ughrahan), which is demanding a compensation of ₹60,000 per acre, ended the dharna outside finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s residence after 15 days on Tuesday and decided to resume the protest outside the Bathinda district administrative complex from October 25. Bathinda chief agriculture officer Manjit Singh said there was no evidence of spurious BT cotton seeds sold to farmers in the region.Field inspections found that cotton ginning units were responsible for breaching safety protocols while processing raw cotton bought from other states, he added.Bathinda has 21 units whereas in Mansa there 14 units engaged in ginning.“These factories were bringing raw cotton from different states, including from the regions experiencing pink bollworm attack for over six years. As fumigation of factories was not conducted periodically, the pest population grew alarmingly in Bathinda and Mansa in the last four years,” said Singh.An agriculture scientist said pink bollworm is a monophagous pest which survives only on cotton plants. As farmers failed to follow guidelines of cotton crop residue management, it gave ample space for the pest to survive.Pink bollworm attack on BT cotton is nothing new and it was common in other states of Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra, said the expert.“It is a baseless claim that spurious seeds caused the infestation. The deadly pest was in the farm ecosystem of southern Punjab since 2018 when it was detected for the first time in Punjab at Bathinda’s Jodhpur Romana village. Field analysis shows that like ginning units, farmers also did not pay much attention to the repeated advisories against pink bollworm threat in the last three years. Overconfident farmers failed to notice infestation at the initial levels and the pest attack spread even in pockets of Sangrur and Muktsar districts as well,” said an official engaged in field surveillance.Cotton prices cross ₹8,000 markOwing to high demand in the market and suspected low productivity this kharif season, private players are paying up to ₹8,300 per quintal, the highest price ever, against the MSP of ₹5,925.Out of seven cotton-growing districts, the rate of raw cotton has crossed ₹8,000 mark in mandis of six districts. Till Wednesday, 5 lakh quintal cotton was purchased at various centres of the semi-arid districts of the state.Fazilka is leading with 1.78 lakh quintals, followed by Mansa 1.08 lakh quintals, Bathinda and Mansa 98,000 each.

Hindustan Times

21-10-2021

Chandigarh