New Delhi, May 24 (PTI) To ensure chilli growers do not incur losses due to pest infestation again this year, Telangana agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy on Tuesday asked the Centre to make available effective pest control chemicals during the coming kharif season.

Reddy, who met Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on this issue at Krishi Bhavan here, said Telanagna is one of the key red chilli growing states in the country. About 3.88 lakh acres was under chilli cultivation in 2021-22 in the state.

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However during the last year, 80 per cent of the chilli area was affected due to infestation of black thrips, which led to huge losses for farmers, he said.

The Telangana minister informed Tomar that farmers could not control pest last year despite repeated sprays of chemicals available in the market and faced severe losses.

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Some of the big farmer associations' delegations have expressed concern that the pest was even spreading to other flowering vegetables, cut flowers and fruits, he said.

"In view of the anxiety of our state farmers and huge losses envisaged in the upcoming kharif season due to black thrips pest, urgent steps need to be taken to implement the integrated pest management programme," he said.

The state minister requested the Centre to direct Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee to register new molecules like Isocycloseum from Syngenta India on priority and make available such effective new compounds at par with the global level to help chilli growers of Telangana in the kharif season.

The Telangana minister also discussed oil palm cultivation in the state and requested Tomar for establishing a regional centre for oil palm research in Telangana.

Reddy also informed that the state government has identified oil palm as the best alternative crop for paddy and hence is promoting the cultivation on a massive scale.

The state government intends to cover an area of 20 lakh acres in a mission mode. It is planned to cover 1.78 lakh acres under oil palm crop in 26 notified districts under the government programme in 2022-23, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)