Can’t kill weeds, farmers blame herbicide

Farmers spraying herbicides on their wheat crop at Gurusar village in Muktsar district. Tribune photo

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, January 19

The rapid growth of weeds in wheat fields has become a cause for concern for farmers these days. With herbicides reportedly proving ineffective, farmers are once again questioning the quality of these chemicals. Recently, farmers couldn’t prevent whitefly from devouring the cotton crop because the insecticides sprayed were spurious.

A visit to the fields revealed that most farmers were busy spraying herbicides to kill the weeds. “The weeds are nearly 15 per cent more than last year. We have sprayed twice the usual amount of herbicides to kill ‘gulli-danda’ (phalaris minor) and other weeds, but to no avail,” said Ranjit Singh, a farmer from Gurusar village.

Shivraj Singh of Tharajwala village said, “Weeds are proving hard to control. These have grown and if we spray herbicide now, it will also change the crop’s colour and affect its yield.”

Farmers demanded that the quality of herbicides available in the open market be checked. “The presence of weeds in the fields is not a new phenomenon. Every year, we spray herbicides to check the growth of weeds. But this year, we are unable to kill the weeds. We have used 12 pouches of herbicides on an acre, but in vain,” said the farmers.

Beant Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Muktsar, said, “Farmers should not worry about the weeds as the herbicides available in the market are effective. They should spray the herbicides as per the recommendations of the department. Most farmers use the spray nozzle that is recommended for the cotton crop. They must use the nozzle recommended for the wheat crop.”

“Farmers can’t question the quality of herbicides as the department began taking samples from the beginning of the wheat season,” he added.

Courtesy: The Tribune