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Fake seeds continue to trouble farmers
Even as the police and agriculture officials raided shops sellAkkampet ing seeds and fertilisers, they could not get rid of the menace of fake seeds in the district.
Akkampet (Warangal Rural): Even as the police and agriculture officials raided shops selling seeds and fertilisers, they could not get rid of the menace of fake seeds in the district.
The result is the farmers are suffering losses. For instance, the farmers at Akkampet, Lingamadugupalli, Nagaiahpalli and Agrampad villages in Atmakur mandal in the district, who have sown chilli crop, have suffered loss of huge amounts they invested as the crop failed to give yield.
It is said that the crop has been sown in about 200 acres in the above villages in the month of May. “We could have been harvested the crop twice by this time. But the crop is stunted with wrinkled leaves and with undersized flower buds,” complained Elkathalli Hamsa Reddy, who has taken up the crop in his two acres at Akkampet.
According to him, several farmers like him have invested Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh on chilli cultivation. But they all landed in heavy losses following the failure of the crop showing the plants with stunted growth. ‘We have taken the issue to the notice of the officials several times during the past two months but there is no response,’ chilli farmers Mara Ramana and Velthoju Ramesh told The Hans India.
Most of the affected farmers are small and marginal land holders. They bought the seed variety VNR-145 from seeds traders in Warangal city. But the seeds they bought proved to be spurious and the crop remained unproductive even after applying fertilisers. ‘We lost money, time and labour,’ they lamented.
Hamsa Reddy noted that the officials failed to conduct inspections in a serious manner to check for the fake seeds. He demanded the government to bring the owners of the fake seed companies and traders to book, confiscate their properties.
“We demand Rs one lakh compensation per acre to each chilli farmer hit by the spurious seeds menace,” he said.
In support of their demand, the farmers have been staging protests in their villages during the past few weeks. Responding on the issue, in-charge agriculture officer Nagaraju said they have informed the company that manufactured the seeds and their representatives would soon visit the villages to inspect the crop.
By James Edwin
