Agriculture officials clueless about dying mandarin trees
9 February 2010
Farmers in Pemagatshel will be relieved to learn that mandarin trees in the dzongkhag are dying not because of Huanglongbing (HLB) or Yellow Dragon Disease as was thought to be.
Nineteen samples, eight from Yalang village and 11 from Denchi village were sent for the test. The samples were collected from badly affected orchards with signs of HLB. All samples tested negative for HLB. The test, known as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), was conducted in December last year at the National Plant Protection Centre in Semtokha.
While the report provided some relief, it leaves farmers and agriculture officials clueless as to why mandarin trees are dying. The report, however, mentioned the presence of both the vectors Diaphorina citri (brown) and Diaphorina community (black) psyllid vector which carries and transmits the bacteria in the area.
“Although the report is negative, we are going ahead with mass spraying campaign against the vectors. This will be followed by pruning and basin making campaign,” said Dzongkhag Agriculture Officer (DAO), Kiran Subedi.
He said that, as recommended by the NPPC, samples from the trees showing signs of greening will be sent for tests every three months.
Meanwhile, the DAO said that, although there are now more questions than answers,
experts will be called in to ascertain the cause of mandarin plant death.
Villages like Denchi, Yalang and Khar have maximum numbers of orchards producing substantial amounts of fruits in the dzongkhag. However, the crop production this year was dismal with trees showing symptoms like wilting, leaf drops, malformation of leaves and incorrect green pigment chlorophyll.
By Gembo Namgyal
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Oye Ap Gyempo, try to dig out and cover up the story of khar-tshebar-durungri feeder road construction as to why it is taking the snail pace……..we don’t see any promising progress…….is it really gonna be completed by 2013 as promised by present government going by the present scenario????????
oye ap pingpong you seem to be from that place right? keep reading.