MULTAN, Aug 21: Former National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhar Imam has urged the government to take stock of the leaf-curl virus and pest attack on cotton crop in order to avoid any major setback to the yield output of silver fiber.

This year’s cotton crop, he said, was under severe stress on account of the pest called `millie bug’ and the CLCV. “Unless the millie bug is controlled, cotton production can be reduced by 10 to 25 per cent,” he warned.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Mr Imam said the bug attack was damaging the crop in the districts of Multan, Khanewal, Lodhran and Vehari, and added that no steps had so far been taken to check the menace.

He said in the absence of any advice from the agriculture department’s extension wing, the cotton growers were experimenting with different methods to control the bug but to no avail.

He urged the federal and provincial agriculture departments to immediately mobilize their resources to overcome the problem.

Mr Imam said the leaf-curl virus attack in certain areas was 30 to 40 per cent. The virus attack, he said, had also affected the approved seed varieties, which showed “our farm scientists have yet to meet the challenge of evolving CLCV-resistant varieties.” — Correspondent