Farmers seek stringent action against spurious seed dealers
The Hindu
Farmers in Anantapur and Sri Satya Sai districts face losses due to fake seeds and uncertified pesticides sold by fraudulent traders.
Farmers of the drought-prone Anantapur and Sri Satya Sai districts have been hit by losses after using fake seeds and uncertified pesticides sold to them by fraudulent traders.
In a recently conducted raid on a seeds shop in Hindupur, the officials seized spurious maize and rice seeds worth ₹23 lakh.
The officials also issued a ‘stop-sales’ notice for humic acid after finding irregularities in sales at one of the shops.
According to official information, there are close to 900 such outlets in the two districts with about 3.5 lakh farmers.
However, the farmers decry that despite the many reports of violations by fertilizer traders, the agricultural authorities have not taken stringent action against them and only limited their action to issuing warnings about providing bills in fertilizer shops and conducting sales at maximum retail prices without taking concrete legal action.
In Hindupur town, there are 11 seed shops with an estimated annual business of ₹20 crore, and it is alleged that up to 20% of this constitutes fake seed business.
“Traders are deceiving farmers by selling unlicensed fake bio-chemical products. Counterfeit bioproducts from Karnataka and illegal sales by unauthorized dealers are flooding the district,” Venkatramaiah, a farmer who allegedly suffered huge losses, deplored.