CHECK WHITEFLY ATTACK ON COTTON, CAPT TELLS AGRI DEPT

CHANDIGARH: With the state eyeing bumper cotton crop in the kharif season this year, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed the agriculture department to launch an aggressive campaign to prevent damage to the crop by whitefly.

The department has deployed 500 scouts and 50 field supervisors to conduct a survey twice a week in each cotton growing village to assess the threat level due to whitefly, a common pest. Around two-thirds of standing cotton crop was destroyed in the state due to the pest attack in 2015, causing an estimated loss of Rs 4,200 crore.

A campaign was launched in the cotton belt to combat the whitefly threat and the interstate consultative and monitoring committee. Scientists from Haryana and Rajasthan are the members of a committee.

MARKFED TOLD TO BUY 300-TONNE POTATOES FOR MID-DAY MEALS

The CM on Monday directed Markfed to immediately procure 300 tonnes of potatoes for midday meals in schools to help the distressed farmers.

He asked Marked, Asia’s largest marketing cooperative federation, to purchase potatoes on no-profit-no-loss basis to bail out growers from crisis they were facing due to low prices of the commodity in the state. The agriculture department has issued an advisory to the education and jails departments for optimum utilisation of potatoes in mid-day meal scheme and for the consumption of jail inmates.