In battle against pests, Punjab cotton farmers pin hopes on mating disruption technology

His village has 2,800 acres of land where cotton used to be sown on 2,400 acres. This year, the area under cotton cultivation has been reduced to 1,000 acres.

Despite having a fear of PBW attack this year too, he is hoping that his cotton crop may remain safe this time because his fields have come under one of the three clusters selected for ‘field experiment-cum-demonstration’ of the mating disruption ‘PBKnot technology’ in the state to manage PBW.

‘Knot of PBW Protection’, this technique is part of project ‘Bandhan’ of the South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC), Jodhpur, in collaboration with Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF), supported by PI Foundation under the technical supervision of ICAR-CICR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Institute of Cotton Research). The project has been launched in northern states where 469 acres in seven clusters each of over 65 acres is spread in seven districts of three states, including Bathinda, Mansa and Fazilka in Punjab; Sirsa and Fatehabad in Haryana; and Ganganagar and Hanumangarh in Rajasthan. The PBW had wreaked havoc last year on cotton crop in Bhatinda and Mansa in Punjab; Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar in Haryana.

A farm woman is seen tying the thread to a cotton plant. (Express photo)

“Mating disruption is an innovative pheromone-based technique that interferes with the reproductive cycle of PBW in such a manner that the population levels are significantly reduced and crop damage is diminished. The PBKnot dispenser releases sex pheromones to prevent male moths from finding females and mating, thus disrupting the reproductive cycle,” said Dr C D Mayee, president of SABC, Jodhpur.
“They have installed pheromone traps for trapping adult PBW moth before mating and hatching, and have tied the thread on our plants also. Everything is free of cost,” said farmer Harpal Singh of Burj Bhalaike, another cotton village which was chosen for the same experiment, under Mansa district of the state. The village had also suffered over 90% damage to cotton last season because of the PBW attack. Harpal has also reduced cotton sowing from 10 acres to 7 acres this season.

In Harpal’s village, which has 1,500 acres of farmland, as many as 1,200 acres used to be under cotton cultivation every year, but after last year’s PBW attack, the cotton area has been confined to just 750 acres this year.

“They visit us regularly and teach us how to observe their fields,” said farmer Surinder Singh of the same village who also reduced his cotton area to half.

On Thursday and Friday, Dr Dilip Monga, former head of Regional Research Station, ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Sirsa, Haryana, inspected the fields in Punjab and provided all technical knowledge and on-farm training to the farmers. He says that this technique is environmental-friendly and is a component of integrated pest management (IPM) for the dreaded pink bollworm.

Experts visit cotton fields in Bathinda where PBKnot Technology is being used to prevent the attack of PBW

Randeep says, “They call this thread a ‘rakhi’ and tell us that it will save the crop just like a brother protects his sister.”

Around 650 farmers and farm labourers are being trained across the seven clusters.

“PI foundation has introduced this innovative mating disruption technology in collaboration with its partners from Japan for Indian cotton growers. This technology had been widely tested in India at various locations for the last three years and was found to be effective for PBW management. Central Insecticide Board (CIB) had granted registration for sale in India in 2020 for PBW management. Last year PI conducted demonstrations of this technology under the technical supervision of CICR Nagpur on more than 300 acres,” said Prashant Hegde, CEO of PI Industries Ltd.

“We are hopeful that this technology will emerge as an effective pest control and help farmers, and we have become its part because of the responsibility towards our people,” said Rajesh Suthar, programme coordinator of Ambuja Cement Foundation.

“We chose North Indian states because there was a deadly attack of PBW last year and we want to educate farmers on how to control such attacks. Like India, the USA cotton industry had also suffered from pink bollworm for more than 100 years. Realising the destructive nature of PBW, the US had launched a countrywide PBW eradication programme in 2002 and by 2018 it was declared PBW-free,” said Bhagirath Choudhary, founder & director of SABC.

Dr Deepak Jakhar, a senior research fellow at SABC and a field officer, said that this thread, which is a thin pipe, is required to be tied once in the entire duration of the crop around the plant when the crop is 45-50 days old and it releases pheromones. “This is tied closely to the stem of fourth to the fifth leaf from the top,” he said, adding that they selected the areas where the attack was the deadliest last year. “The coming two months are quite challenging for us when the chances of its breeding are more.”

Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has also been experimenting with another gel-based technology for the last couple of years on its farmland in Bathinda. This paste/gel is applied on the stems of the plant close to the shoots at an angle. This paste then will release synthetic pheromones and the male insect interacts with it but won’t be able to find the female insect and it will disrupt the mating. But in this method, three applications are required when the plant is 50, 80 and 110 days old.