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Field Crops

The document discusses cotton production including varieties, growth requirements, field operations, pests and diseases, and control measures. Key steps in cotton production include seedbed preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, sorting, and ginning. Major cotton pests include cotton lygus, Empoasca spp, cotton aphid, and various bollworms. Diseases addressed are bacterial blight, black arm, angular leaf spot, and Fusarium wilt.

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63 views

Field Crops

The document discusses cotton production including varieties, growth requirements, field operations, pests and diseases, and control measures. Key steps in cotton production include seedbed preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, sorting, and ginning. Major cotton pests include cotton lygus, Empoasca spp, cotton aphid, and various bollworms. Diseases addressed are bacterial blight, black arm, angular leaf spot, and Fusarium wilt.

Uploaded by

Yaboi Matt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FIELD CROPS

These include cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and Sunflower (Helianthus
annus).

COTTON PRODUCTION

Cotton is an annual plant that belongs to the family called Malvaceae.

Importance of cotton

• Cotton lint or fibre is used in textile industries to make cloth.

• Oil is also obtained from cotton seeds and is used for cooking, to manufacture margarine, soap,
paints and lubricants.

• The residue left after extracting oil is called cotton seed cake, and is used as feed livestock.

Varieties of cotton

Improved varieties include: SATU (Severe Albar Type Uganda), BP 52 (Bukalasa Pedigree 52), S 47 (Serere
47), BPA 89 (Bukalasa Pedigree Albar 89) and BPA 95.

Growth requirements

Rainfall. Cotton is tolerant to drought to a certain extent. It requires a minimum of 500 mm of rainfall
annually, with 175 – 200 mm being distributed over the growing season

Temperature and altitude. It grows at altitudes of up to 1400 m above sea level. Minimum temperature
for germination is 15 0C, and optimum temperatures for growth after germination range between 21
and 27 0C.

Soils. It grows best in a variety of soils from sandy acid soils to alkaline clay, as long as they are well
drained. The optimum soil pH ranges between 5.2 and 7.

Field operations

(a) Seedbed preparation

The seedbed should be reasonably fine to encourage proper germination. It should be done early so as
to facilitate early planting.

(b) Planting

This is carried out by hand and should be done early to prevent high incidences of pests and diseases,
lint discolorations and low yields.
(c) Spacing

The spacing cotton has been found to perform best is 75 cm x 15 cm.

(d) Weeding and thinning

Weeding is usually done manually using hand tools on small scale farms. Pre-emergence herbicides such
as Diuron can be used on large scale farms.

(e) Fertilizer application

Phosphate fertilizers such as SSP can be applied at planting and nitrogen fertilizers such as sulphate of
ammonia can be applied 6 weeks after planting

(f) Harvesting

This is known as picking and is done by pulling lint out of the split bolls. It is done at intervals to prevent
the lint from becoming discoloured.

(g) Sorting

After harvesting, cotton is sorted during which good quality cotton (Grade A) is separated from poor
quality cotton (Grade B).

(h) Cotton ginning

This is the removal of lint from seeds. It is done in factories called ginneries. The lint is then pressed and
baled into bales. The seeds are sold to oil companies to extract oil from them.

(i) Pests of cotton and their control

Control measures

Names of pest Kind of damage caused


Cotton lygus It attacks young leaves, squares and bolls.
It makes holes in leaves causing premature leaf shading.
Attacked squares shrivel, turn brown and drop off the pants.
It bores into bolls and feeds on developing seeds.
Attacked bolls drop, and that do not drop produce stained lint.
Empoasca spp They suck sap from veins of mature leaves.
Affected leaves become distorted and curl down with red margins.
Heavy infestation causes shedding of squares and bolls.
Cotton aphid [Aphis Sucks sap from the undersides of leaves, especially in seedlings causing
gossypii] stunted growth.
Attacked leaves wilt, shrivel and tends to curl.

Pink boll worm Larvae attack squares and bolls and feed on their contents.
Affected bolls fail to open
American bollworm The larvae make clean circular holes on squares and green bolls and feed on
the developing tissues.
Attacked squares and bolls drop off the plant.
Spinny bollworms Larvae attack young shoots, squares and bolls causing stunted growth,
withering and dropping of squares and bolls.
Cotton strainers They suck sap from cotton bolls.
They transmit a fungus called Nematospora gossypii, which stains the lint.
Early attack may cause boll shedding.
Red cotton mite Attacked leaves show yellow mottling, turn red, wither and drop off the
plants.

The following practices help to control cotton pests:


• Intercropping cotton with food crops such as beans
• Applying biopesticides such as Bacillus thuringiensis
• Applying plant extracts, e.g., from Neem tree
• Early planting
• Closed season
• Trap cropping
• Planting clean seeds

(j) Diseases of cotton and their control

Bacterial blight:

It is a soil-borne disease. It attacks cotton at seedling stage and when plants are already established.
Affected leaves of seedlings bear water-soaked patches.

Black arm causes black lesions on the stems and branches,

Angular leaf spot causes black, angular spots on leaves.

Control measures
• Close season
• Applying copper fungicides
• Growing resistant varieties
• Seed dressing

Fusarium wilt
This is caused by fungus. It is soil-borne as well as seed-borne. Affected plants wilt at the growing points,
become stunted, leaves turn yellow and bolls open prematurely.
Control measures
• Apply nematicides to kill nematodes that transmit the disease
• Planting resistant varieties
• Planting disease-free seeds

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