Tomato and capsicum crops grown in the mid-hills of the state are increasingly being lost to collar rot and leaf blight diseases. Thirty to 40 per cent of the crops are said to have already been destroyed.

“A sudden rise in diurnal temperature owing to a prolonged dry spell coupled with unusual rains in the mid-hills over the past fortnight have made the crops vulnerable to attacks of various fungal and bacterial pathogens,” said Dr S K Sharma, Head of Department, Mycology and Plant Pathology, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni.

He said tomato crops in Junaji, Shilli, Deothi Patta (Mehlog) have so far been found infected with the collar rot disease.

Tomato, which is largely credited to have transformed the economy of the farming community of this hilly state, is grown as a major off-season cash crop in Solan, Sirmour, Bilaspur, Una, Kangra, Hamirpur and Mandi districts over 18,000 hectares of land. Its annual production is around five lakh metric tonne.