UMERKOT, July 27: Pests and insects have attacked cotton and chilli crops in the district and growers fear a 50 per cent decline in yield this year as compared to last year.

Brown and black thrips, jassids, white fly and mealy bug have hit fields of chilli in Kunri, Samaro, Pithoro and Umerkot talukas and some areas have been hit by bud-mites, thrips, American boll worm, fungus and downy mildew diseases.

According to a progressive grower, Mir Amanullah Talpur, growers had cut back on chilli sowing and increased cultivation of cotton because of the damage to chilli seeds in last year’s rains.

He had sown chilli on 36 acres last year but this year he cultivated the crop on 21 acres only. Small growers cultivated 20 per cent less chilli this year than last year.

He said that he could not get pesticides of good quality because small growers like him had to utilise low quality inputs, which they got through middlemen on loan. Water shortage added to their problems and it caused weakening of the crop.

He said that in the past, thrips only caused shading of flower in chilli which was recoverable but now it attacked leaves and stunted the crop’s growth.

Thrips were being transmitted from cotton crop to chillies, he said and expressed fear that the disease could affect onion crop also.

He said that growers who had barely managed to recover from last year’s heavy rains had made less investment in chilli this year and brought less area under chilli cultivation because of the risk factor, lack of seeds and water shortage.

Prolonged water rotation programme and water shortage has aggravated the situation and weakened the cotton and chilli crops, making them vulnerable to diseases and attacks by pests.

According to an official of the agriculture department, Hussain Bux, this year chilli had been sown on 11,500 acres in the district. The pest attacks and other diseases could decrease the yield by 25 to 70 per cent if extra care was not taken by growers, he said.

He advised the growers to use water and fertilisers judiciously, weed out the unwanted plants, make proper identification of insect, pest and diseases and take steps to control them in time.

He said growers did not monitor and manage the crop properly because they did not know fundamentals of crop and soil management. This also made the crop vulnerable to diseases.

He said that in fact growers were using more water than required, their land was less levelled and they were not using fertilisers in a balanced quantity. Besides, they were not using anti-insect pest in time.

Weather conditions were also responsible for outbreak of such diseases and pests because pesticide turned ineffective in the cloudy weather, the official said.