Ludhiana, Dec. 30 -- With winter weather turning increasingly cloudy and foggy, potato growers in Punjab have been put on alert as conditions are becoming favourable for the outbreak of late blight disease. Over the past week, temperatures in the state's major potato belt have hovered between 10 and 22 degrees Celsius, coupled with high night-time relative humidity of over 85 per cent and prolonged leaf wetness due to heavy dew formation. Experts say such weather creates ideal conditions for the rapid spread of late blight, especially in districts like Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar, Ropar and Kapurthala.

Late blight is one of the most destructive diseases of potato and can cause severe crop losses if not managed in time. The first sig...