Central Cotton Research Institute Director Sabahat Hussain has advised cotton growers to conduct pest scouting of their crops twice a week to protect fields from insect attacks and ensure healthy crop development.
Cotton growers urged to conduct pest scouting twice weekly
MULTAN, May 12 (APP):Central Cotton Research Institute Director Sabahat Hussain has advised cotton growers to conduct pest scouting of their crops twice a week to protect fields from insect attacks and ensure healthy crop development.
In a message issued on Tuesday, she urged farmers to install 10 yellow sticky traps per acre in cotton fields older than two months to control sucking pests, especially whitefly. For protection against pink bollworm during boll formation, she recommended the installation of 10 sex pheromone traps per acre, while one trap for every five acres should be used for monitoring purposes.
She also advised growers to delay the first pesticide spray as long as possible and said the overall condition of the early-sown cotton crop remained satisfactory despite reports of pest attacks from some areas.
Sabahat Hussain further directed farmers to irrigate crops lightly after every seven to 10 days during cooler morning or evening hours due to rising temperatures. She emphasized immediate completion of thinning operations in 25 to 30-day-old crops, followed by the application of one bag of DAP or NP fertilizer to improve crop growth and productivity.
She said adopting these recommendations would help farmers maintain healthy cotton crops and achieve better yields.
