'CPEP helps Pakistan cope with cotton leaf curl virus'

The United States under its Cotton Productivity Enhancement Program (CPEP) project has helped Pakistan cope with cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV) disease with a view to increase cotton productivity, said Dr Jodi Scheffler, a research geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Speaking at a joint media briefing along with Dr Abdul Majeed, Country representative for International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), and Mohammad Azeem Khan, Director General National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), she stated that CLCuV is a disease that can decrease cotton yield by 20 percent or more. She pointed out that cotton is a major raw material for Pakistan's domestic textile industry, which accounts for a significant part of the GDP and it is grown on over 3 million hectares by about 1.3 million farmers, many with land holdings of 5 hectares or less.
She said that the CPEP is a 5-year $4.5 million USDA effort to mitigate the effects of CLCuV and improve food security in Pakistan. To implement CPEP, she stated, the USDA has partnered with 13 Pakistani research groups from some of the top research institutes in Pakistan who are conducting 13 projects co-ordinated by the ICARDA.
The program goals are to mitigate the impact of CLCuV on production in Pakistan through the development of CLCuV resistant cotton and improved agronomic practices, as well as encourage collaboration between Pakistani and US scientists creating linkages between the United States and Pakistan, build technical capacity in Pakistan and provide opportunities for young scientists through exchanges and training, she added.
About the achievements, Dr Scheffler stated that USDA donated 5,000 cotton seed samples to the Pakistan germ plasma collection. She stated that Pakistani scientists screened the samples and identified multiple sources of resistance to CLCuV in non-commercial cotton, providing multiple sources of resistance that will help prevent resistance breakdown where the disease overcomes the plant's resistance mechanism.
She stated that an intercropping system has been developed that allows cotton to be planted early by sowing directly it into standing wheat, which allows the cotton to be more mature and able to better withstand CLCuV when the disease is at its highest level.
Furthermore, she added that 16 Pakistani researchers completed exchange programs hosted in the United States under USDA's Norman Borlaug Fellowship program and CLCuV has become a global concern and through CPEP Pakistani scientists are currently sharing their CLCuV expertise with other countries including China, Australia and Brazil.
In 2016, she stated that the US Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack recognised the success of USDA collaborative programs with Pakistan by awarding the USDA Pakistan team employees with the prestigious USDA Abraham Lincoln Honour Award. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Abdul Majeed said that one of the government's top priorities is to cope with CLCuV disease and improve the cotton productivity in the country.
In Punjab, he stated that they are working on cultivating two corps, wheat and cotton, at the same season. He expressed the confidence that the experience was quite successful and it would gradually be extended to the Sindh province as well. DG NARC Mohammad Azeem Khan said the CPEP project was implemented in 11 districts of Punjab and Sindh. Under the project, he said that hundreds of farmers including women were imparted with training.