Haryana to launch special drive to curb farm input adulteration

CR Rathee

Ambala, Dec 3: Following complaints of large-scale adulteration, particularly in fertilisers and pesticides, Haryana agriculture minister Jaswinder Singh Sandhu has directed the field functionaries of his department and the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University (CCSHAU) to launch a special campaign to collect samples of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides from the shops and test the same in the government-approved labs.

Analysing the causes as to why the recommended dosages of fertilisers and pesticides do not yield the expected results and fail to check diseases, the minister felt that inspectors responsible for collecting samples are some how supporting retailers to sell fake inputs at prohibitive costs.

During his recent incognito visit to some districts, Mr Sandhu was reportedly informed that the field functionaries collected the samples every year, but the samples were not immediately sent to the labs, thus giving time to dealers to maneuver the results. For instance, Mr Sandhu told The Financial Express that the staff collected 1,260 samples of seeds of Kharif crops and 2,090 samples of Rabi crops last year.

The minister said while the farmers had complained of spraying pesticides three to four times on various crops, not a single sample had been recorded as having failed the test. This leads one to suspect some sort of nexus between the inspectors and dealers, he said, adding “I even suspect the nexus between some unscrupulous elements even at the headquarter,” he added.

Henceforth, it would be the duty of the concerned deputy commissioner to see the working of the village extension workers (VEW) by seeking weekly reports from the department, besides surprise visits to villages.

He said VEWs would also report to the concerned gram samiti while identifying contact farmers for practical demonstrations. Besides, VEWs would quite often interact with the farmers about crop conditions, weather, incidence of insects, pests, diseases etc. As far as possible, VEWs would also recommend low-cost farm practices.