Seed scam: Officers told to caution farmers

Archit Watts

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, May 15

In the wake of fake BT cotton seed scam, the Directorate of Agriculture has asked all Chief Agricultural Officers in the cotton belt of the Malwa region to make public announcements in villages, appealing to farmers to check packets of cotton seeds and approach them in case of doubt about the genuineness of seeds.

Last week, fake cotton seeds were seized from Muktsar, Fazilka and Mansa districts. The seeds bore the mark of RCH 773 of Tamil-Nadu-based Rasi Seeds Private Limited.

Chief Agriculture Officer Beant Singh said, “The announcement will be made from village gurdwaras.”

“We have seized 39 packets of fake seeds. Several farmers are visiting our office daily to clear their queries regarding packets bearing the lot number RCH 773. It has been found a dealer mentioned a different lot number in invoice issued to farmers,” he said.

The police, meanwhile, have booked 11 dealers on the charge of selling fake BT cotton seeds in Muktsar and Fazilka districts. The kingpin of the scam is unidentified.

The Director (Agriculture) has sent a team of three officers from Chandigarh to supervise the investigation.

This year, the Agriculture Department has set a target to increase the area under cotton from 2.56 lakh hectares to 4 lakh hectares. Farmers have shown interest in sowing cotton and that too after suffering losses on account of 2015 whitefly attack, which decreased the area from 3.7 lakh hectares to 2.56 lakh hectares.