PAU Farm Advisory Service Scheme (FASS), Jalandhar
National Symposium on Strategic Issues in Plant Pathological Research held at Department of Plant Pathology, CSK HP Krishi Vishvavidayalaya, Palampur on November 24–25, 2011
Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae of paddy, loose smut and flag smut of wheat (Ustilago tritici and Urocystis agropyri) and scurf of potato (Rhizoctonia solani) and potato scab (Streptomyces scabies) are very serious diseases, if goes unnoticed can result in huge losses in terms of yield and quality. For these diseases seed treatment is the easiest and cheapest means of control and the only control measure available in case of loose smut and flag smut of wheat. Keeping this in mind, the study on the extent of adoption of recommended seed treatment technology in these crops was undertaken by randomly selecting 100 farmers belonging to seven blocks of Jalandhar district (Jalandhar East, Jalandhar West, Nakodar, Nurmahal, Phillaur, Bhogpur and Adampur) during the year 2010–2011. The required information regarding fungicide use and method of seed treatment was taken from the farmer by personally interviewing them. The proportion of farmers not treating seed in paddy and wheat is 27 per cent in the district. In paddy, out of 73 per cent who treated seed, 17.8 per cent used un-recommended fungicides or used only Emisan-6 for seed treatment against its use in combination with streptocycline. However, in case of wheat, only 1.37 per cent farmers out of those who treated wheat seed used un-recommended fungicides. Although, the proportion of farmers using recommended fungicides in wheat as seed treatment is higher than paddy, but almost all the farmers doing seed treatment in wheat follow wrong practice. Instead of using seed treatment drum, they apply the fungicide to seed on plastic sheets. Main reason for not treating the seed was negligence on the part of farmer about the quantum of damage caused by seed borne diseases. In case of potato, the proportion of farmers treating potato seed is comparatively much higher (97.0%) than paddy and wheat but out of these 54.1 per cent treated the seed by spraying fungicide instead of dipping the seed in fungicide solution for 10 minutes. Those spraying fungicide on potato seed reported labour shortage as the main reason for this practice. From this it is quite clear that there exists gap in adoption of recommended technology in major crops which needs to be bridged by making concerted efforts.
