Teso farmers urged to grow cotton

Farmers in Teso sub region have been encouraged to engage in the growing of cotton as an economic activity.

The call was made by Peter Takan the plant pathologist of National Semi Arid Resource Research Institute (NaSSARI) in Serere during President Yoweri Museveni's visit on Sunday.

Takan said cotton is one of the bestselling cash crops that can generate income amongst farmers in Uganda due to the market demand.

"Though some of the farmers have tried to engage in cotton growing they have been demoralized by cotton diseases such as bacterial blight and verticillium", said Takan.

Emmanuel Ejiet Igolat the cotton entomology research assistant at NaSSARI said cotton disease greatly contributed to the low production of cotton in the country.

Ejiet said that at least the organization has been able to carry out control cotton disease by use of chemicals such as Cruiser Extra and Bruno Pal.

He said the presence of pests that are friendly to cotton such as lady bird beetles, praying mantis, assassin bugs and common wasps feed on pests that destroy cotton like the American ball worm, sucking bugs, lygus bugs and flowers beetles.

Ejiet said that there is no need of spraying cotton because this will destroy all the pests including enemies of cotton pests.

Museveni was left impressed by the new variety of cotton that NaSSARI introduced.