Consultation Meet on Emerging Challenges in Plant Protection of Major Kharif Crops

13th August 2022 Chandigarh

One-day Consultation Meet on Emerging Challenges in Plant Protection of Major Kharif Crops was organised by the ICAR-Agricultural Technology Apllication Research Institute, Ludhiana at Chandigarh today.  The aim of the meet was to take stock of current Kharif season crops in Northern States and to know real time status of pest and diseases in Kharif crops and develop strategies for their effective management.

In his address, Dr. A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General (Ag Ext), ICAR and Agriculture Commissioner, Govt of India said that maize is seen as alternate crop to paddy and mustard can also to some extent claim wheat area. He emphasised that cultivation of maize, mustard and moong (3M) should be promoted to boost farmers' income and attain self-sufficiency in edible oils. Dr. Singh also emphasised the need for adoption of the modern technology and called upon agricultural research Institutes to develop protocols for different crops for Agri-drones. He informed that Government of India has sanctioned 300 Kisan drones under Agri-drone project to the ICAR for conducting 75000 demonstrations by KVKs, ICAR Institutes and Agricultural Universities during 2022-23. He urges the KVKs to send regular quality crop advisories with lot of economic value to the farmers. He said more than 36 lakh farmers have registered on Kisan Sarthi portal and all ICAR Institutes are addressing the farmers’ queries regularly. He cautioned the farmers against the indiscriminate use of pesticides. He said such interface meeting will help in knowing the farmers voice from grass root level and the solution discussed during such meeting can help in percolating the recommendations at village/block level.

Shri R. G. Agarwal, Chairman, Dhanuka Group stressed on the need for the adoption of ‘Integrated Crop Management' practices, usage of modern technology and quality agri-inputs. This will help address critical issues pertaining to different crops cultivated across the country. Precision agriculture important to enhance crop yield and income of farmers, said Dr Agarwal. He said the farm sector is embracing drones and other technologies in a big way as ttechnology has to play an important role in increasing farmers income.

Sh. Hardeep Singh, Director General, Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Haryana informed that there is attack of whitefly and PBW in cotton area, stunting growth of paddy also reported in Ambala and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana. He also shared the preparedness of agriculture department for rabi season also. He emphasized that diversification is the top priority of state government and we are planning to develop scheme to promote diversification along with value chain so that the problem of glut can be sorted out.

Dr. Gurvinder Singh, Director, Agriculture, Punjab informed that the vegetative growth of cotton is slow due to many reason and advisories are being sent to farmers for boosting the crop in many pockets. However, there are problem of white fly and PBW in cotton crop and effective measures are taken to reach the unreached. For effective dissemination, our teams are in the field even in Holidays working tirelessly and providing solutions to the farmers. He visualized that the cotton productivity may be less due to poor growth but this can be compensated with rise in prices of cotton in market. There is also some problem reported in rice crop about stunting growth and researchers from PAU are looking for solutions of this emerging problem.

Dr. Rajbir Singh, Director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI) moderated a crucial session on interaction with KVK scientists about emerging challenges and solutions of current Kharif crops.

This is the first time a national-level consultation meet is being organized in association with a private sector to boost public-private partnership as envisaged by policy makers.

Dr. Subhash Chander, Director, ICAR-National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM), New Delhi suggested that farmers would benefit immensely by adopting integrated pest management techniques and it needs to be adopted in a holistic manner in Paddy, Cotton, Maize and Sugarcane.

Dr. Sujay Rakshit, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMP), Ludhiana emphasised that diversification of crops is the need of the hour and maize is the good candidate for diversification in paddy grown area. He advised that cultivation of short duration crops would also help the farming community a great deal.

During this meet, experts from diverse backgrounds viz. ICAR Institutes, agricultural Universities, KVKs and Industries including officials of state department of agriculture shared their experiences on emerging challenges in current Kharif season crops in north India. They discussed plant protection measures of current Kharif season crops viz. paddy, cotton, maize and sugarcane of Punajb, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. The major challenges in Kharif season crops are whitefly and Pink Ball Worm (PBW) in cotton, stunting growth and yellowing of leaves in rice, top-borer and Pokkah Boeng in sugarcane and Fall Armyworm (FAW) in maize were deliberated in details by the experts.

More than 65 scientists of 33 Krishi Vigyan Kendas (KVKs) of Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi participated physically and more than 200 scientists from other parts of country joined virtually.

(Source: ICAR- Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Ludhiana)