AT a recently-held meeting of Farmers Associates Pakistan, many participants from the cotton belt complained of American bollworm attack on crop, and asked the Punjab government to take corrective measures. They also demanded formation of a committee of experts to determine the causes, damage and potential threat to the final yield. The farmers’ demand followed a meeting at the Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) in Multan, where new threats to cotton were discussed at length. Some of the farmers and official circle now claim that attack is receding in pockets and might not have caused much damage to plants. However, other growers insist that bollworm still exists and is thriving. Only detailed and expert-level inquiry can clear the confusion created by claims and counter claims. The complaints of American bollworm attack have largely come from the Southern Punjab, which forms the core cotton belt. According to a study by the Faisalabad Agriculture University, around 70 varieties of Bacillus thuringiensis (or BT) cotton are being sown there. Since there is no criterion for better or otherwise varieties — the federal government has not issued final certification to any one of them. Experts list a number of reasons that could cause the attack of the American bollworm, which normally should not have survived on BT verities. The reasons may include less than required gene expression, pest developing resistance against protein that kills in BT, micro-local level weather conditions or farmers not following the crop protocol. As far as crop protocol is concerned, all creators, promoters and sellers of the BT seeds say that each acre or field of cotton must have 10 per cent refuge plants, which should not be sprayed so that they can play host to American bollworm and save the rest of 90 per cent. “Farmers hardly follow that method,” says director of Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) Dil Bagh. These host plants cannot be sprayed since it could create problem for other varieties. One has to make sure that the seed one is purchasing is of the BT variety. Once in the field, checking the variety becomes both expensive and a technical job. These may be the reasons but the attack is almost over, he claimed. The American bollworm, being polyphagous pest, survives on many plants. If they are in the vicinity, the attack is probable. This year, Punjab has better gram and maize crops — both are hosts of American Bollworm. In the central Punjab areas, cotton is sown in the same fields and coincides in some instances. If a particular seed variety does not have required toxicity level to kill the pest, it would naturally thrive and it has thrived this year, prompting Chairman of the FAP Shah Mehmood Qureshi to demand formation of an experts’ team to find out the reason, extent and damages to the crop. Punjab has some high-humidity pockets like Sahiwal and Faisalabad districts, which are always ideal for cotton pests. Such areas need more attention, continuous monitoring and extra care. One problem with advent of BT cotton has been farmers’ perception about it; they think they neither need pest scouting nor sprays. Both these perceptions are not correct. Even in the USA, where BT technology has leapfrogged ahead of the world, farmers keep monitoring pest, have fixed an economic threshold level and apply spray once the limit is crossed. In Pakistan, all is left to the BT seed. This creates double jeopardy: the technology is old (Bollgard-I, created in the mid-1990s) and farmers do not do their bit to improve the yield. The world has already moved to the next technological step. It creates a gap that either technology or farmers or regulations will have to fill. None of them are doing it. It creates a situation of vulnerability which can continue creating problems for the crop and country. “The current modified seed is fairly resistant to the American bollworm, but not absolutely resistant,” says an official of the Punjab agricultural department. This is what it is now telling the farmers: don’t lower your guard against the pest — regularly monitor the crop; if eggs cross the economic threshold level (300 per plant), go for the stipulated spray. This year, fortunately monsoon started early, causing heavy downpour. The physical beating of the pest might have helped recede the attack. It may not happen next year. But the problem would stay as the BT technology cannot stop eggs and egg-lings, it only kills them in first and second instance. So, the farmers have to be on their toes, especially when weather conditions turn favourable — lower temperature and high humidity — and the host plants offering lot of food to these pests, he advised.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:54:33 +0000