Farmers Advisory Committee Issue Fortnightly Guidelines For Cotton Farmers

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jul, 2020 ) :Farmers Advisory Committee (FAC) met here Friday at Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) and issued a set of guidelines for cotton farmers applicable for the next two weeks till July 31.

The sixth FAC meeting was chaired by CCRI Multan director Dr. Zahid Mahmood that discussed the overall cotton crop situation in the country and issued crop care guidelines.

Experts said that farmers should avoid irrigation in case of rain, or, if unavoidable, can apply light irrigation in the evening.

Farmers whose crops have attained three feet height or more should avoid hoeing by tractor.

In case of fruit shedding, farmers should apply 200 gram boric acid, 250 gm Zinc Sulphate, 200gm Potassium Nitrate, 400 gm Magnesium Sulphate,� and two kilogram Urea. These chemicals should be mixed in water separately and applied at the rate of 100 litres of water per acre. Crop showing yellow colour indicates deficiency of Nitrogen which can be overcome by applying Nitrogen with water.

In case of crop showing more vegetative growth than fruit then farmers should apply growth retardent spray or stop applying fertilizers and increase duration of water application.

It was informed that incidence of one Aphid per leaf is the economic threshold level (ETL) and can be tackled through application of 100 ml Dynoteferon, or 60 gram Flunicamide, or 50 gram Nitin Pyram in 100 litres of water per acre.

For white fly management, farmers should instal 8-10 yellow sticky traps per acre.

In case of five white flies (adult and pupae) per leaf, farmers should apply 400 ml Pyre pyrexifen, or 125 ml Spirotetramate plus 250ml biopower, or 200 grams Thiocycline hydrogen oxalate and acetamiprid in 100 litres of water per acre.

In case of incidence of 10 Thrips per leaf, farmers should apply 125 ml chlorfenapyr or 50 ml spinetoram chlorpyrifos in 100 litres of water per acre.

In case of pink bollworm attack on fruit bearing crop, farmers should spray 100 ml spinetoram in 100 litres of water per acre.

CCRI director Dr. Zahid said that farmers should instal a pheromone trap for five acre flower bearing crop area to monitor pink bollworm.

He added that 6-8 pheromone traps be installed per acre for management of pink bollworm.

Mites attack should invite application of 480ml Fipronil or 1000 ml chlorpyrifos per acre through water application.

Farmers who have sown cotton early for purpose of obtaining seed, should remove plants of other varieties to ensure purity. Phutti or seed cotton or flower plucked should be healthy, completely opened and not affected by pests.

This Phutti or seed cotton should be dried under sunlight and should undergo ginning process early. Then the seed so obtained should be dried under the sunlight to make it ready for next season sowing.

Heads of different wings of CCRI attended the meeting including Dr Naveed Afzal, Dr Idrees Khan, Dr Fayyaz Ahmad, Sajid Mahmood, Dr. Rabia Saeed, and scientific officer Junaid Ahmad Daha.

Seventh FAC meeting would be held on Aug 1 at CCRI Multan.