Chilli crop in Karnataka’s Ballari region under black thrips attack, again

After a year’s gap, the dreaded black thrips infestation has surfaced in the chilli crop once again around Ballari, a key growing region for the spices crop in Karnataka, and parts of Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh. Also, the pest has reportedly surfaced in Haryana this year, where chilli is grown under protected cultivation.

Black thrips (Thrips parvispinus) is an invasive sucking pest that feeds on tender flowers, shedding of flowers and also causes fruit drop in chillies leading to yield loss.

Preventive sprays

NK Rajavelu, CEO of Crop Protection Business of Godrej Agrovet Ltd (GAVL), said there’s an upsurge in black thrips infestation in Karnataka, mainly around the chilli growing areas of Ballari in the current cropping season. About 60-70 per cent of the cropped area around Ballari has been infested with black thrips. The district is a major chilli-producing region in Karnataka, where both the pungent Guntur varieties and hybrids used in making powder are widely grown.

However, in Andhra and Telangana, the main chilli-growing States in the country, where the crop is still in the early stages (35-50 days) the pest infestation has not been reported, but growers in these States are going in for preventive sprays, Rajavelu said.

Govindappa MR, Senior Scientist and Head of ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Hagari, Ballari, confirmed that the black thrips infestation is more this cropping season in the district compared to last year. The pest has become endemic in the region. The infestation is more in the black soil regions and farmers have been taking up at least two sprays in a week to tackle the pest. KVK has been creating awareness about the Integrated Pest Management package and use of bio agents and bio consortia to deal with the pest, he said.

Causing huge losses

Basavaraj Hampali of Hampali Traders in Hubballi said growers and the trade are cautious and keenly observing the crop developments. Any unseasonal rains in the days ahead could spur the infestation, he said.

Black thrips have been a concern for the chilli growers and the trade since the outbreak during the 2021-22 cropping season as the spread of infestation had caused widespread crop losses.

Bhagirath Chaudhary, Founder Director, South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC) in Jodhpur said, “Black thrips of chilli has established all across chilli-growing areas of India causing significant losses in chilli production despite two dozens of additional pesticides sprays undertaken by farmers costing at least ₹8,000-10,000 per acre additional expenses. Since it is devastating invasion in chilli in AP, Telangana and Karnataka in rabi 2021, black thrips has resurfaced in many area, and reported to have severely affected protected cultivation in North India as well, and has become a dominating pest displacing endemic existing species Scirtothrips dorsalis.”

“As farmers struggle to manage invasive black thrips, not even an ad hoc approval has been given to new pesticides by the CIBRC which has led to indiscriminate use of pesticides which are becoming cause of concerns in export of chilli due to increase pesticides residue. Black thrips must be declared an agriculture emergence with allocation of resources to deal with this new enemy of chilli in India,” Chaudhary said.