New cotton crop varieties having comparatively better resistance against CLCV will be approved shortly and their seed will be made available to the growers through Punjab Seed Corporation.
Fayyaz Bashir, Secretary Agriculture Punjab disclosed while chairing meeting of cotton crop Management Group at Central cotton Research Institute, Multan, says a press release issued here on Friday. Fayyaz Bashir informed that Punjab will harvest fairly satisfactory cotton crop and achieve production target of 10 million bales in current year.
He said cotton germplasm from abroad has been imported and trials are in progress to develop new CLCV resistant varieties within 2-3 years. Earlier, Director General Agriculture (Ext & AR), Punjab presented strategy for American bollworm management when cotton crop is not in field and whitefly control on spring crops.
Under this strategy, destruction of diapausing population of American bollworm along with biological control and discouraging sunflower cultivation in traditional pockets of American bollworm will be followed.
He said complete ban on cultivation of off-season cotton will be imposed along with eradication of alternate host weeds for management of American bollworm. Use of pyrethroids on spring crops will be discouraged for control of whitefly and encouraging use of IGRs like Buprofezen for its control.
A committee comprising of three agricultural scientists including Dr Ijaz Pervaiz, Dr Ghulam Mustafa and Dr Ahmad Saleem was also constituted to prepare recommendations for implementation, to control whitefly which is the main factor for spread of CLCV.
Secretary Agriculture Punjab also emphasised for effective implementation of clean cotton programme which is being implemented in seven districts of south Punjab. He urged the District Officers of Agriculture Extension to work hard for achieving the target of 70,000 bales of clean cotton from Punjab under the programme this year.
The meeting was attended by DG, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, DG agriculture (Ext & AR), DG, Pest Warning and Quality control of Pesticides Punjab, CE, Irrigation of Multan Bahawalpur, DG Khan and Faisalabad zones, DOs of Agriculture Extension (cotton zone), representatives of pesticide companies and progressive growers.