CENTRE ALERTS STATES ON OUTBREAK
OF SUGARCANE PEST
The Union Agriculture
Ministry has alerted 16 sugarcane growing states on the outbreak
of a pest on sugarcane crop, the White Woolly Aphid and asked
them to take up intensive monitoring upto the village level for
taking up effective plant protection and preventive measures.
The Ministry’s initiative followed the reported presence of this
new pest in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. The Central
Integrated Pest Management Centre at Faridabad reported the presence
of white woolly Aphids during a special survey conducted in the
second week of March 2003. The pest has been recorded in traces
in some blocks of Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar
Pradesh and Haridwar district of Uttaranchal. Low to high incidence
of the pest was also recorded in some parts of Haridwar and Muzaffarnagar
districts.
In the advisory sent
to the states, the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine
and Storage of the Agriculture Ministry has called for regular
pest monitoring in collaboration with sugar mills, cane departments
and state agricultural universities. The States have also been
suggested a package of recommendations including biological and
chemical control measures, cultural practices and long term measures
for effective control of the pest. The nymphs and adults of the
Woolly Aphid congregate on the central surface of leaves along
mid-rib and suck the sap resulting in drying up of the leaves.
The honey dew excreted by the pest also results in the development
of fungal sooty mould causing complete blackening of the leaves
affecting photosynthesis.
The states cautioned
by the Ministry are Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal,
Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura,
Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
A central team headed
by Dr. C.R.Hazra, Agriculture Commissioner, earlier visited Maharashtra
and Karnataka in the first week of March 2003 following reports
of outbreak of the White Woolly Aphid pest. An area of 1.32 lakh
hectares of sugarcane crop in Maharashtra and 0.87 lakh hectares
in Karnataka is infested by the ephid pest. The team held extensive
discussions with all the concerned agencies and departments in
both the states for taking effective control measures.
The White Woolly
Aphid known as main pest of sugarcane in tropical Asian region
i.e. Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea besides
its incidence in Pakistan has been categorised as a minor pest
of sugarcane in India. It has been earlier recorded from north-eastern
states like Nagaland, Assam, Tripura, Sikkim and also from West
Bengal but there was no infestation on sugarcane crop.
The Agriculture Ministry
has advised all the sugarcane growing states to take up removal
and burning of affected leaves and crop residues in infested fields,
judicious use of nitrogenous fertilizers and irrigation water,
providing proper field drainage, use of fungal pathogens and predatory
caterpillars that live on the pest, the use of insecticides like
Malathion, Endosulfan, Monocrotophos and Acephate granules besides
use of resistant varieties.
