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| Will Agriculture Minister order probe? | | Supply of Substandard Paddy seeds | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 23: Farmers across the valley have demanded a high level probe by the Agriculture Minister in supply of substandard paddy seeds to them.
The paddy growers of Budgam, Pulwama and its adjoining areas are critical of the Agriculture department for severe reduction in paddy yield this season inspite of the fact that there was a bumper paddy crop this year.
Farmers have accused that all those people who obtained paddy seeds from Agriculture department early this year had a very low yield of crop as the seeds were of inferior quality.
Ghulam Mohiudeen Waza , a farmer from Wathoora in central Kashmir's Budgam said he had purchased paddy seeds from the agriculture department.
"I used these seeds believing in the promises made by the department that the yield would be better, but the promise turned out to be false as there is at least 50 per cent drop in the production in my fields as compared to the last year". Said Ghulam Mohiudeen
"Three Kanals of land that would give 10 - 11 quintal yield have not given even six quintals this season . Despite the Agriculture department claiming that seeds are of high quality, the paddy crop is of a bad quality," Mohiudeen added
Farmers of the area say that small size of seeds resulted in low production of fodder or dry grass. The fodder (dry grass) quality is also very inferior and 15 per cent paddy is having no rice grains in it.
The farmers have alleged that despite using high quality fertilizers / organic manure in their fields, the bad quality of seeds has impacted the produce.
"We appeal Agriculture Minister to look into this issue. We have infact already brought this matter into his notice , but till date there has been no action on part of the Agriculture Ministry said" Muzaffar Ahmad another farmer from Chadoora
Pertinent to mention that few years back subsidized paddy seeds supplied by Agriculture department yielded only grass in several areas of Beerwa and Khag in Budgam . The farmers were cheated by government as well as private suppliers. The farmers had alleged sale of fake or substandard seeds was wreaking havoc on the agricultural productivity of Kashmir. "There is fear of huge decline in the production of important crops, if the government did not check the sale of fake seeds."
According to the State Seed certification centre Srinagar, a total of 4425000 hectares of land is earmarked for seed growing for 184900 quintals.
Altaf Andrabi, the incumbent Director Agriculture Kashmir who was previously Coordinator, Seed certification in the Agriculture department had told a local daily in 2013 that the seeds developed by the farmers pass through different levels of certification in University and in concerned State government departments.
He had made it clear that State Seed Subcommittee for Agriculture and Horticulture had approved the 16 seeds of rice, wheat, maize, oats and pulses on the basis of their productivity but in view of the recent complaints all the claims of agriculture department have turned out to be mere hoax.
"It is important to mention here that 90% of the farmers do not purchase seeds from agriculture department, had they done so there would have been 50 % reduction of paddy yield this year said Sheikh Muzaffar" a farmer from Dreygam Budgam
Several Agriculture scientists at the SKUAST claim that they are developing new seed varieties as Jammu and Kashmir has a huge potential for producing disease-free seeds. "More farmers are getting motivated to use maximum for seed production.
The present climatic conditions are ripe for the quality seed production of vegetables due to the long duration of three-months winter period.
Kashmir can become a hub of seed production for the entire world," said an official of SKUAST Shalimar.
The concept of a Seed Village was introduced in the valley to boost the quality seed production and to make quality seeds available at reasonable prices in the villages. According to the official data issued by the Agriculture department, 421 villages are producing 57,460 quintals of seeds in 2,149 hectares of land.
Sources say that the seeds sold by agriculture department to farmers of plain regions of Kashmir this year was actually meant for those areas which are hilly areas like Kupwara, Khag, Khansahib, upper Baramulla etc. By supplying these seeds the paddy ripened a month early and the color of rice grains is pinkish which is usually seen in cold areas.
Around 2004 Vigilance Organisation Kashmir had registered a case against Agriculture Department officials for purchasing sub standard hybrid seeds from various companies.
The seed scam had caused huge loss to state exchequer, the case is still pending before Vigilance. |
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