Agri experts warn against infected potato seeds in Punjab

Ludhiana, Oct 7 (UNI) Issuing a warning to farmers, the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has advised them to ensure that the potato tubers kept for seed purpose in the coming sowing season are free from infection.

The PAU warning comes after its scientists observed that the seed kept in some of the cold stores in Hoshiarpur district were infected. The main reason for the infection was the late blight disease that had affected the potato crop in the last season causing yield losses.

Late blight is a devastating disease of potato and has the potential of destroying the whole crop in a week under favourable weather conditions. Most of the seed kept for this season also became infected.

PAU scientists today stated that diseased seed tubers are the primary source of late blight infection on potato crop. The farmers should remove the infected tubers from the seed lots before sowing and destroy these.

The heaps of culled potato tubers which may contain late blight infected tubers are often piled outside cold stores that may also serve as primary inoculum source for the adjoining fields. These cull piles should also be destroyed by burying them deep in the soil.

UNI