A high-level committee in Minfal has been set up which would work in coordination with the provincial agriculture department to find out factors responsible for low productivity and grain weight in wheat crop.It will submit its report in five weeks.

As a matter of fact the recently harvested wheat crop, both in upper Sindh and southern Punjab came under pest attack during the booting to milky stages. The intensity of aphids insurgency was so severe and widespread particularly in Khairpur, Sukkur, Ghotki and parts of Naushero Feroze that large-scale spraying on wheat crop was resorted by growers on thousands of acres.

In the absence of guidelines from the provincial Extension Department, injudicious use of pesticides against aphid pest was rampant, particularly on account of misleading advice by the pesticide dealers.

Sadly, the provincial and federal governments did not come to the rescue of growers at the time of crisis, but now have constituted a committee to probe the factors responsible for less wheat production during 2002-2003 Rabi season.

How the factors responsible for low production go unreported, particularly at provincial level could be gauged from the fact that during the current Kharif season hundreds of hectares of cotton, specifically in the Kachho area of upper Sindh was damaged by crickets and grasshoppers, sans any official report or survey to this effect.

Cottonseed sown after wheat harvesting in the belt susceptible to grasshoppers in the Kachho area failed to germinate up to 90 per cent and the growers attribute this to poor quality of seed. But a survey undertaken by this scribe indicated that the damage was caused by the field cricket. Cotton seeds failed to germinate as its embryo was eaten by crickets while the seeds were still embedded in soil. The growers considering the menace ‘beyond control’ preferred to abandon the cultivation of cotton on vast acreage this year.

The ravage of crickets and grasshoppers have threaten the economy of the growers of Kachho area, as for the last couple of years they were obtaining good cotton yield even without, or very little spray of pest control.

So far as the cultivation of cotton in Kachho area is concerned it would be proper to mention that the absence of floods since late 1990s has led to a tremendous increase in the acreage under cotton. According to unofficial estimates the cotton acreage in Kachho areas of upper Sindh has surpassed one lakh acres.

Regarding black-headed cricket (acheta domesticus linn), though widely considered a harmless specie is a serious pest of cotton, oilseeds, jowar (sorghum), wheat and other cereals in special ecological parts of upper Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab since the end of the 19th century. The review of literature indicates that with the opening of the Lloyd Barrage (Sukkur Barrage) in 1935, cotton crop was introduced in the upper Sindh, and Nasirabad division of Balochistan and since then cottonseeds at the time of sowing as well as young germinating seedlings have been a favourite food for pests. In this area, the damage to cotton was so serious that the British Cotton Growing Association which started cultivation on a large scale had to give up the enterprise (Haroon Khan-1951).

Soon after the creation of Pakistan, the Central Department of Plant Protection took notice of the colossal damage by the pest and organized a rapid survey to determine the intensity and extent of infestation. On the basis of that preliminary enquiry, the government of Pakistan sanctioned in April, 1949, a coordinated scheme for the control of black-headed cricket in all the affected areas of Balochistan, Sindh and the then Kalat State, with the financial contributions from the unit concerned and the pest was effectively controlled.

Suggestions: Since the Kachho area in upper Sindh is coming under extensive cultivation of cotton crop the agriculture ministry, both at provincial and federal levels must take notice of the resurrection of the black headed cricket menace in Sindh and Balochistan.

In view of the WTO’s health and phytosanitory requirements for agriculture-related export — to be implemented from 2005 — an environment-friendly strategy must be evolved to control field cricket and grasshoppers. In other words, the strategy should be different from one adopted half a century back by the Central Department of Plant Protection using highly toxic and long persistent insecticides. A proper plan is vital because cotton is the mainstay of our economy.