Punjab agri dept yet to identify farmers who bought spurious paddy seeds

PATIALA :Though the paddy sowing has begun, the state agriculture department is yet to identify the farmers who purchased ‘spurious’ seeds, mainly PR128 and PR129 varieties.

The kharif season was marred by the seed scam with recovery of unauthorised seeds of the said varieties from private seed producers and traders across the state in past three weeks.

The failure of the agriculture department in identifying the buyers may cost the farmers dear as experts believe the spurious seeds will affect the paddy production.

It may be mentioned that the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) introduced these varieties for the first time and didn’t provide the source seed to any private player. The PAU sold the seeds directly to farmers.

Already, there are reports of seed samples collected from Ludhiana’s private Brar Seeds Store failing the germination test, while the reports of samples confiscated from Patiala, Gurdaspur, Bathinda, Muktsar and other parts of the state are still awaited.

Agriculture director Sutantar Kumar Airi said the seed producers illegally sold seeds claiming they were of PR128 and PR129 varieties. “The district heads of agriculture department have already been directed to find how much of unauthenticated seeds have been sold in the open market,” Airi said.

Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda) said the department was already late in taking action.

“The farmers who purchased these seeds have already sown them or have transplanted saplings for manual transplantation of paddy,” Singh said.

Patiala chief agriculture officer Surjit Singh Walia said they were taking all precautions and have directed block-level officers to take feedback from farmers on the crop.

“It is not possible on the ground to identify farmers who purchased seed varieties from unauthorised dealers,” Walia said.

Farmers were sold PR128 and PR139 varieties for ₹200-250 per kg by private players even as PAU was making available the same for ₹70 per kg.

As per the PAU, PR128 matures in about 111 days, while PR129 takes about 108 days to mature, which is three weeks earlier than PUSA 44.