Shimla, July 15 -- The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI), Shimla, has issued a warning about a possible outbreak of the late blight disease affecting potato cultivation in the state. Potato - one of the state's key agricultural crops - is grown in about 14,000-15,000 hectares in Shimla, Sirmaur, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts of the state. According to institute's 'Indo-Blightcast' forecasting model, current weather conditions favour the spread of the disease, and the risk of an outbreak may increase in the coming days. Head of the plant protection division (CPRI) Sanjeev Sharma urged farmers to adopt preventive measures promptly and advised spraying fungicides containing Mancozeb or Chlorothalonil on disease-susceptible crop varieties in fields where symptoms have not yet appeared and fungicides have not yet been sprayed. He said that if symptoms of late blight disease appear in the field, farmers are advised to spray fungicides.htc...