MUZAFFARGARH: The owners of mango orchards are concerned about the attack of powdery mildew and midges after flowering season of the fruit started in south Punjab.

Owners and tenants were waiting for lifting of Section 144 and markets and shops to reopen so they could spray their orchards.

Dr Shaukat Ali Abid, assistant agriculture director (extension), claimed that if the orchards were not sprayed their yield would be very low.

The mango orchards in Khangarh, Ali Pur and Shah Jamal had not been sprayed for the first time due to the lockdown. The district administration had strictly ordered the public to stay home, while the orchard owners feared that after two months they would likely face a crisis as a large number of families depended on them.

Dr Abid visited Shah Jamal area of Muzaffargarh tehsil and advised the farmers to spray mango orchards with suitable fungicide to contain an attack of powdery mildew and insecticide to avoid midges. The midges attacked flowering buds at the larvae stage and caused reduction in mango fruit yield up to 60 per cent and 100pc in severe cases.

At the flowering stage, mango orchards were sprayed with an interval of seven days for encouraging results. Moreover, parts affected with the mango malformation disease should be removed at fruit setting stage and destroyed deep into the soil outside the orchards.

Meanwhile, many tractor owners and threshers said if workshops were not opened, the wheat season could face a delay as their machinery for threshing had to be serviced two weeks before the start of wheat harvest season.

Many urged the government to consider the cleanliness in villages that depended on crops, and relax some restrictions.

An agriculture official said the date palm trees were passing through a crucial time for artificial pollination. Farmers should make relevant arrangements otherwise the date palm crops would be affected.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020