‘Neglect of Nursery Act causing citrus greening’

  • | Thursday | 17th January, 2019

Nagpur: The Central Citrus Research Institute (CCRI) is linking the ‘greening’ disease of citrus, especially oranges, to the non-implementation of the Nursery Act by the state agriculture department. The bacteria can spread from pathogens present in planting material, and also from one plant to other through an insect pest called as Citrus Psylla, a vector. The act ensures supply and sale of disease-free planting material to farmers from all nurseries.CCRI scientists are also trying to bail out farmers from the crisis by reaching out to them with control measures. Integrated application of tetracycline hydrochloride 600 ppm (6g/10 lit of water) plus zinc sulphate and iron sulphate (200 gm each). Ensuring disease-free planting material and management of Citrus Psylla are the only solutions for controlling the disease.The greening this year has affected about 40-45% area under crop in Achalpur-Paratwada belt, and about 18-20% in Nagpur district.

Nagpur: The Central Citrus Research Institute (CCRI) is linking the ‘greening’ disease of citrus, especially oranges, to the non-implementation of the Nursery Act by the state agriculture department. The act ensures supply and sale of disease-free planting material to farmers from all nurseries.CCRI scientists are also trying to bail out farmers from the crisis by reaching out to them with control measures. However, since the bacteria causing the disease has always been present in plants from the time of plantation in old orchards, and reached new orchards, scientists say control is not as easy it sounds. In extreme cases, the only solution is to uproot the infested trees.MS Ladaniya, director CCRI, said the state government has not been ensuring that private as well as government authorized nurseries use the right root stock and graft to prepare the planting material as per the Nursery Act. In fact, out of the 500 odd nurseries, about 250 do not even have a license.“Greening means that the veins of the leaves of the plant turn yellow, and the fruit too is divided into two colours. The upper portion of the fruit has its natural colour while the bottom half remains green even after ripening, affecting the fruit quality,” he explained.The disease is caused due to a bacterium called as Candidatus Liberibacterasiatius or Huanglongbing. The bacteria can spread from pathogens present in planting material, and also from one plant to other through an insect pest called as Citrus Psylla, a vector. It reduces the production and quality of fruit. Ensuring disease-free planting material and management of Citrus Psylla are the only solutions for controlling the disease.The greening this year has affected about 40-45% area under crop in Achalpur-Paratwada belt, and about 18-20% in Nagpur district. In Warud and Morshi tehsils of Amravati district too it has affected 18-20% plants.The corrective measures include quarantine measures to limit movement, sale and use of infected bud wood or nursery stock. Integrated application of tetracycline hydrochloride 600 ppm (6g/10 lit of water) plus zinc sulphate and iron sulphate (200 gm each). Tetracycline hydrochloride should be used as foliar spray from October to December twice at 45 days interval, whereas the sulphate should be applied in tree basins.For controlling Psylla, suitable insecticides should be sprayed at the time of emergence of new flush on the trees. Removing infected branches is also a solution. But trees with over 50% canopy infected need to be uprooted.Since curry leaf tree acts as an alternate host for Psylla, it should not be grown in the vicinity, advised the experts.RED FLAGGreening has affected almost all citrus growing regions in country43% of sweet orange and 18% of Nagpur mandarin affected, up to 28% of kinnow and 40% of malta in PunjabIn South, up to 46% of Sathgudi orange, including 10-46% area in Andhra PradeshIn Coorg area of Karnataka, 15-47% area is affectedIn Assam NEH region, 5-12% of Khasi santra is infected. Assam lemon has been affected in 8-38% treesIn Sikkim, 16-30% of khasi santra has been affected

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