Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, May 20: Apple growers in Zainapora hamlet of South Kashmir’s Shopian district are in distress as a new pest has been found in their orchards that is infecting the apple crop.
Locals from Zainapora area said that such kind of an insect has been found rarely and that the pest was creating havoc in the orchards.
“Wherever this pest was found last year, produce was less shiny, smaller in size as this insect sucks all the nutrients from trees,” the locals said.
Tariq Ahmad, a resident of Zainapora area of Shopian, said that new pest is laying web layers from one branch to another, followed by trunk and then even inserting its body into the fruit.
“This pest whose number is in millions is sucking all nutrients from the tree due to which size of fruit remains small. It is damaging leaves and then trees as well,” he said.
Orchardists said during apple picking season, this pest bite causes allergy and then they are not even able to hire labourers. “Even after spraying insecticides several times, there is hardly any effect on this pest,” they claimed.
Senior Entomologist from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology (SKUAST) said that it is an invasive insect which has been identified as “leaf miner and has probably reached here before three years.”
Leaf miners were reported some time before but last year their manifestation was very huge, however, their number isn’t too huge yet, they said, adding, “Most pathogens and fungal or bacterial diseases are invasive species and this leaf miner is curable if growers will follow advisories regularly while requesting farmers to co-operate with the department
Meanwhile, growers demanded that it should be checked as to how this insect reached here and proper vigil must be kept on such things in the future.
Pertinently, the department of Horticulture has already issued an advisory for farmers to stop the spread of leaf miners.
The advisory includes installation of yellow sticky@1/10 metre apart/Pheromone traps @8-10 trap/ha, spray Thiadoprid 21.7% SC @ 60ml/100 litre of water at 15 days interval or spray Thiamethoxam 25% WG@50g/100 litre of water at 15 days intervals or spray Chlorantraniliprole 18.5% SC@100ml/100 litre of water at 15 days interval or spray Imidadorpid 17.8% SL @ 30 ml/100 litre of water at 15 days interval or spray Lambda Cyhalothrin 5% EC @50 ml/100 litre of water at 15 days interval or spray Flubendiamide 39.35% SC @40 ml/100 litre of water at 15 days interval. Notably, around half population of the valley is directly or indirectly on fruit industry as this industry has a turnover of around 20,000 crore annually.
