The tragedy is the disease has no treatment whatsoever. Local farmers in Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts of Rajasthan had developed a fancy for Nawab 72 due to its high yield.

Last year was the worst when over 40 per cent of the crop was lost due to the diseases. The total losses were put at Rs 300 crore.

Producing about 12 per cent of the country's cotton, the area under the crop in Rajasthan has been on the rise as the farmers get a good return on the production. Compared with 1994-1995 where the area under cotton in the State was 4.86 lakh hectares, the acreage under cultivation in 1996-1997 increased to 6.44 lakh hectares.

Last year, cotton production fell to 8.67 lakh bales as against 13.63 lakh bales in the preceding year. More than 80 per cent of the sowings have now been done in Rajasthan and the new crop shouldhit the mandis sometime during October-November. There is some shortage of cotton seeds this year, admits Purshottam Agarwal, Director of Agriculture. ``We are taking all possible steps to provide the certified seeds but still there could be some shortages'', he added.

The shortages were due to the fact that 40 per cent of the crop was lost last year. Unseasonal and continuous rains led to the havoc with the result that the crop was damaged beyond expectations last year. Whitefly and Heliothis were the cotton diseases which assumed dangerous proportions last year.

Due to the wrong application of insecticides the diseases could not be controlled. These diseases could be controlled if the insecticides were used in the initial stages (of the disease), says Agarwal. Despite the warnings given to the farmers not to use the insecticides they continued to do so increasing crop losses.