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Authors
Affiliations
1 Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141 004, IN
2 ICAR-Central Institute of Cotton Research, Sirsa 125 055, IN
3 Department of Agriculture (Punjab), Mohali 160 055, IN
Source
Current Science, Vol 119, No 4 (2020), Pagination: 618-624
Abstract
In 2015, a whitefly epidemic devastated cotton in about 1.5 m ha in North India and reduced the yield level to about 35% of average productivity in the state of Punjab. Protection of crop from sucking insect pests, including whitefly, is primarily based on insecticides. A more knowledgeintensive and multidisciplinary approach which can lead to a dramatic reduction in chemical use combined with unprecedented improvement in productivity should qualify as a worthy successor to the green revolution. Interventions include host plant resistance, robust surveillance and ETLbased decision-making, managing non-crop hosts, pest resurgence curtailment through targeted biopesticide and pesticide application, crop nutrition, and abiotic stress amelioration. Research refinements even as implementation progressed, high intensity outreach and cotton belt-wide implementation not just restored productivity, but also resulted in achieving record yields of 756, 750 and 778 kg lint/ha in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, compared with 197 kg lint/ha in 2015 in Punjab, and pesticide savings during these years over 2015 were INR 2589/ha, 2808/ha and 3060/ha respectively. The success story and its modus operandi have implications for ‘new agriculture’, which needs to be disseminated and debated widely.
Keywords
Agroecosystem, Bemisia tabaci, Bt-cotton, Community-Based Approach.
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