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Working Group on Shisham Dieback submits suggestions
ISLAMABAD-A Working Group on Shisham Dieback has recommended
short term measures to be taken by the tree growers in order
to arrest Shisham tree diseases.
The Working Group was set up by Chief Executive General Pervez
Musharraf under the chairmanship of Advisor to the Chief
Executive on Food, Agriculture and Livestock, M. Shafi Niaz to
investigate the causes of Shisham dieback.
The "Working Group" which has had a couple of meetings so far
recommended in its recent meeting held here to review the
progress made by the provinces on the work being done on the
prevention of Shisham dieback, a drying disease that all dead
trees resulting from dieback disease should be cut and removed
with stumps and as far as possible roots should be dug out and
burnt.
It also suggested that if the tree is not yet fully dead,then
only the dried part should be cut, lopping should not be more
than one-third of the tree and that it should not be done
during the growing season when the leaves are sprouting.
The farmyard manure should be applied while deep hoeing should
be done below tree crown and water should not be allowed to
remain stagnant near or around stem of the tree, the meeting
further recommended.
In this respect a field survey was conducted by Punjab
Forestry Research Institute, Faisalabad which revealed that
the disease was caused mainly by stresses, mainly due to
drought.
Other factors which could contribute were water logging,
salinity, excessive use of pesticides, fertilizer, lack of
organic matter in the soil and so on. As regards long-term
measures 'The Group" decided four preventive measures which
included planting of Shisham should be done on well-drained
sites, certified seeds sapling should be
used in nurseries so that disease affected seeding are not
planted, planting of Shisham should not be done in waterlogged
and saline soils and during digging of water channels,
injuries to the root/collar should be avoided.
The Working Group set up a core group of experts of
scientists, researchers and foresters in order to monitor and
review the research studies on Shisham dieback and provide
regular feed back to the high level working group. The experts
however, could not isolate any single cause for the die-back
of Shisham and other affected trees.
The Punjab government has also sanctioned a project to
undertake field research on Shisham Dieback and make
arrangements for training of tree farmers. In this connection
Ministry of Environment, Local Government and Rural
Development has also approached United Nations Development
Programme/Food and Agriculture Organization in order to seek
their technical and financial assistance to help find the
solution to arrest the rapid spread of this disease.
It is understood that the FAO has prepared a regional project
on Shisham about dieback for Bangladesh, India, Nepal and
Pakistan which will, inter-alia, establish a central
repository of information on die-back and related diseases of
Shisham, help
a sub-regional review of he current state of knowledge about
the control and prevention of this disease, convene a meeting
of researchers to develop a medium-term collaborative research
programme for the solution of this disease, and provide
guidelines and training for researchers, extension workers and
farmers in the controlling of die-back and related diseases.
December 14, 2001
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