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Haryana farmers find herbal remedy for cotton virus
3 Oct 2002, 2301 hrs IST,TNN
HISAR: Efforts of a handful of farmers in Haryana have paid off. They have found an indigenous herbal remedy for a serious
viral disease afflicting their cotton crop. The leaf curl virus, popularly known as CCLV, will no longer give the farmers
sleepless nights.
Coordinator of Natural Farming Network, Dr Sudhir Kaura told Times News Network on Thursday that
under the supervision of Vishwa Bharati Kisan Jagriti Shikshan Sansthan, Ladwa (Hisar district), a farmers' institute promoting
organic farming in Haryana and neighbouring states for over a decade, Jagdish Kumar of Badopal village in Fatehabad district
saved six acres of American cotton crop from CCLV.
According to Heera Lal, Jagdish's associate, within seven days
of first spraying of the indigenous herbal concoction, the symptoms of the disease disappeared.
According to Dr Kaura,
agricultural scientists had so far not been able to find a cure for the disease caused by the Gemini virus.
The only
solution, according to the agricultural university, is to uproot the afflicted plant and burn it to save the others from contracting
the disease.
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