Flying squads to check spurious cotton seed at railway stations

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, March 24

With the cotton sowing season scheduled to begin from April 15, the Agriculture Department has this year decided to deploy flying squads at railway stations to keep a check on farmers bringing uncertified seeds from other states, especially Gujarat.

Talking to The Tribune, KS Pannu, Secretary, Agriculture, Punjab, said, “The uncertified seeds are not recommended by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the State Agriculture Department because these are prone to attack by whitefly and other insects. Thus directions have been given to the Chief Agriculture Officers and the Deputy Commissioners of Bathinda, Barnala, Faridkot, Fazilka, Mansa, Moga, Sangrur and Muktsar districts to keep an eye on farmers alighting from trains coming from other states, especially Gujarat. The field officers have also been asked to destroy weeds, which are an alternative host of whitefly.”

He said posters mentioning the harmful effects of BT cotton seeds of other states would also be pasted at railway stations and camps would be organised to spread awareness among farmers. “Our aim is to stop the sale and sowing of uncertified cotton seeds in the state. If the farmers follow the guidelines of the State Agriculture Department, their benefit will definitely increase,” Pannu added.

This year, the department has fixed the target of cotton sowing on 3.2-lakh hectares in comparison to 2.83-lakh hectares in 2018-19. An agriculture officer said the PAU had recommended 90 varieties of cotton seeds in the state.

White gold

3.2 lakh hectares cotton target this year

2.83 lakh hectares was covered in 2018-19

90 varieties of seeds recommended by the PAU