Nahan, May 9 :, Farmers are worried about the yellow rust disease in Garlic in the Rajgarh area of Sirmaur District in Himachal Pradesh as crop was about to harvest in the end of this month.
Farmers say that due to botrytis die back disease taking heavy toll of their production and currently the their corps is not getting fair price. The color of garlic leaves in the fields has turning yellowish which shows symptoms of yellow rust disease in the Garlic crop. This region is once known for Ginger production but due to similar disease in the Ginger farmers have switched over to large scale production of Garlic which is mainstay of their livelihood. Sirmaur’s Garlic is considered best in quality and taste, due to which there is a large demand of their crop in the country and abroad.
Agriculture Expert Rajgarh Dr. Hira Lal Azad said that cash crops like tomato, peas, capsicum, french beans are produced in large quantities in Rajgarh area besides garlic. The department has advised farmers to spray Difenconazole 25% EC for the treatment of Blight disease in Lasuhan and 25 EC or Hexaconazole 5 EC and Butaconazole Fusarium Wilt for yellow rust disease.
Dr. Azad said that blight causes damage to the roots and leaves of Garlic while yellow rust causes the leaves to turn yellow, which causes dust to fall from the leaves while touching it. It is necessary to treat this disease from the initial stage. This crop is sowing along with Rabi crop. Farmers do not require much effort to take care as it is normally did not require the pesticides and to much fertilisers. The crop gets ready within about 5-6 months. Garlic of Giripar has heavy demand in the Market of South India. The hill Garlic is endowed with medicinal properties .
According to the Agriculture Department, Garlic is cultivated on four thousand hectares of land in district, which produces an average of 60 to 70 thousand metric tons of Garlic every year.
Anyway, for the last two years, the maximum rate of crop in the market of Chennai and Maharashtra has been Rs.120 per kg. Last year farmers had stored Garlic for several months, but when there was no increase in the rate of crop , they had to sell it on the one forth price.(UNI)