HYDERABAD: Agriculture Principal Secretary C Partha Sarathi on Wednesday directed district collectors in the State to constitute a committee, under the leadership of joint collectors, to educate farmers about the pink bollworm (PBW) that have infested the BT Cotton crop and ways to deal with it.
“Cotton is an important crop in the State and the area under it is increasing every year. During 2018-19, an area of about 18.20 lakh hectares was covered and the ensuing year also it may be the same,” the principal secretary said.
Partha Sarathi noted that BT Cotton (Bollguard-II) covers most of this area, and the pink bollworm has grown resistant to BT Toxins (Cry1AC + Cry2AB) in this crop over the years.
“This has become a serious concern in Central and Southern cotton-growing States. Consequently, severe infestations have been observed in some States such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
The principal secretary said the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University has come up with an action plan for the management of PBW in BT Cotton, in anticipation of an infestation.
“All district collectors are requested to constitute a monitoring team in each district under the chairmanship of joint collectors. These teams would have officials from the department of agriculture. They shall organise awareness programmes for farmers on best practices and precautionary measures, he said in a letter.