Agriculture Department notice to 30 seed dealers of Jalandhar district

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Jalandhar, May 11

Show-cause notices have been issued to as many as 30 seed dealers in the district by the Agriculture Department. There are more than 190 dealers in Jalandhar. Ten teams were constituted by the department that conducted inspections in 10 blocks of the district.

Some of the dealers could not show the licence for the seed they were selling, while others had either not maintained a proper stock register or were not giving bills to the farmers. These were the findings by the teams after which the officials issued show-cause notices to the dealers.

Now, they have been given two days to answer, or else their licence will be cancelled. When teams asked for the documents from these seed dealers, many of them could not produce them. Last year, the license of two dealers had got cancelled.

The department made an appeal to the farmers that they should buy seeds from the trusted dealers and should not compromise the quality just to buy seeds at low prices. The officers have advised the farmers to buy the seeds from licensed dealers.

Meanwhile, several steps are taken by the department to persuade farmers to adopt varieties that take less time to grow, but hardly any difference is seen on ground. But, now the department has approached the dealers to ask farms not to buy late paddy varieties such as PUSA 44, which is one of the most cultivated varieties by the farmers.

Dr Naresh Gulati, Agriculture Officer, said the dealers have been asked to discourage the farmers from buying this variety. Camps are also organised from time to time to tell farmers why it was not right to sow the PUSA 44 variety of paddy.