ISLAMABAD: As the cotton crop is at vegetative-cum-flowering stage in Sindh and Punjab, a thorough review of a US-assisted programme was carried out to contain risk of losses from pests and viruses.

“The cotton leaf curl virus disease [CLCuV] in Pakistan is causing a loss of around three million bales every year,” said Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan on Tuesday while speaking at a two-day annual workshop on ‘Enhancing Cotton Germplasm Improving Resistance to CLCuV Disease’.

“Cotton exports, however, still earned 51 per cent of the total foreign exchange last year,” he said.

Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, the chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, said the five-year Pak-US CLCuV programme has been considered as one of the most successful programmes.

More than 60 farmer field schools have been held so far across all five cotton-growing districts in Pakistan, training 2,726 farmers in the disease management.

Meanwhile, a crop situation report produced by Suparco, the national space agency, has revealed mild breaking of BT cotton resistance to bollworm attack. It advised the Punjab agricultural research system to conduct further investigations.

The rains of July have added to the discomfort of cotton growers. The effectiveness of agro-chemicals has been compromised due to continuing rains while investment costs have increased due to frequent spraying. The moist season and moderate temperatures have also flared up multiplication of insect pests and attack on cotton crop.

The project is aiming to undermine this constraint through cutting-edge integrated pest management techniques spread through farmer field schools. The programme is reducing the risk of cotton losses from pests and viruses, a costly problem for cash crop farmers.

Bosan lauded the US Department of Agriculture for “choosing the right time to assist Pakistan to conduct a comprehensive research on this disease with a focus on developing CLCuV resistant varieties”. He stressed the need for developing knowledge-based response to Pak-US climate change, environmental and broader sustainability challenges.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary National Food Security and Research Seerat Asghar said that ‘Seed Act’ provides a big role to the private sector, providing it an opportunity to work for agriculture development. “Many challenges are needed to be addressed today to secure the future of agriculture.”

US scientist Dr Brian Scheffler in his presentation explained the research work done in Pakistan to combat the CLCuV while Dr Rob Briddon talked about the basics of the virus which he said has been inflicting a great loss to cotton.

A germplasm storage and distribution programme is using a “cold room” which was put in place so that the Pakistani national agricultural research system can provide varietal testing for the seed sector on a national level.

The programme screened and characterised over 1,400 accessions imported from the United States during 2012 and found two of them to be highly resistant to CLCuV disease.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2015

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