India-b’desh seed swap a hindrance to curb wheat blast

ABOUT 800 HECTARES OF LAND IS AFFECTED BY WHEAT BLAST. A MINISTER SAID CATTLE STRAYING ACROSS THE BORDER TO GRAZE ARE ALSO CARRIERS

KOLKATA: Rahul Amil is a farmer in Basantpur, a village in the Domkol block of Murshidabad district in West Bengal that shares a border with the Chapai Nawabganj district of Bangladesh. Amin, who has been cultivating wheat for the past few decades, regularly procures seeds from farmers of Bangladesh.

Quality and price are both factors in opting for seeds from Bangladesh, he says. There is no fence between his village and the neighbouring country.

Not that a fence would have mattered; Krishna Halder, a share-cropper in the Mahakhola village in Nadia district exchanges seeds with farmers from the neighbouring Chuadanga district of Bangladesh despite the presence of a fence.

“Every day, farmers cross over for farming plots that happen to be on Bangladeshi soil through the gates and across BSF screen. BSF doesn’t check whether farmers are taking seeds or bringing them back,” said Halder.

This informal and free exchange of seeds across the India-bangaldesh border in Murshidabad and Nadia districts of Bengal is a headache for the Mamata Banerjee government, which is trying to control the spread of wheat blast in Bengal.

Last year in July, the state banned wheat cultivation for a year within an area of 5 km from the border in these districts. On September 4, the ban was extended for another year.

State agriculture minister, Asish Banerjee said, “Though we were expected to come out with a solution for tackling wheat blast within this period, it simply did not happen. There is a huge unfenced border in these two districts and we are unable to control exchange of seeds...”

The challenge confronting the administration is evident from what the farmers say. “Despite the border, we live like a single society, where we exchange food items and even goodies during festivities...,” said Biplab Biswas, a farmer from Chapra in Nadia.

About 800 hectares of land has been affected by the disease.

A minister said cattle that stray across the border on either side to graze are also carriers.

Bangladesh has a 4,096-km border with India, of which 2,217 km is with West Bengal.

“Last year, the state government paid a compensation of ~4.10 crore to farmers for the wheat that we had to burn in the fields ,” said the agriculture minister.