Farmers in Haryana and Rajasthan forced to uproot insect-infested cotton plants

18-Jul-2024 09:00 PM

Sirsa. Like Punjab and Rajasthan, some parts of Haryana are also witnessing a deadly outbreak of insects and diseases on cotton crops. In the highly infected areas, farmers are being forced to uproot and throw away the cotton plants and plough the fields again.

In these three provinces of northern India, the infection of pink bollworm and white fly insects is continuously increasing on the cotton crop.

Cotton producing farmers in Haryana's Sirsa district are quite worried and troubled. On the other hand, cotton crops in Punjab's Abohar, Fazilka and Mansa districts are becoming the prey of these insects, while in Rajasthan, in districts like Sri Ganganagar,

Hanumangarh and Anupgarh, the pink bollworm insect has started damaging cotton. Some farmers in Haryana's Sirsa district are spraying expensive pesticides on cotton crops to control the deadly infestation of insects and diseases,

while there are some farmers who cannot afford such high expenses and so they are now preparing their fields afresh and sowing alternative crops like moong in it. Pink bollworm pest especially infects the early sown cotton crop.

Last year also this pest had destroyed the cotton crop and this year again it has become a serious threat to the livelihood of the farmers. 

Farmers say that despite spraying of pesticides, the infestation of pink bollworm pest on cotton crop is still there, so it is better to uproot and throw away the plants.

No attention is being paid to improving the quality of cotton seeds and the farmers have to bear the brunt of it.

Cotton production area in Haryana has come down from 5.75 lakh hectares last year to 4.50 lakh hectares this time.

Many farmers turned away from cotton cultivation due to fear of diseases and insects or reduced the area of ​​cotton cultivation in their total land holdings.