Vijayawada: Fake seeds, fertilisers leave farmers in lurch

Vijayawada: Farmers are facing tough times in getting quality seeds and fertilisers for the current Kharif season across Krishna Delta. It was alleged sale of fake fertilisers and seeds has increased rampantly due to the inactiveness and laxity of the officials in doing their duty. This is in turn incurring loss to farmers, throwing them into debts.

On Thursday, a prominent seeds shop sold fake and inferior quality maize seeds to the farmers of Vissannapeta of NTR district. Similarly, in Krishna district also five farmers were deceived by a fertiliser dealer.

Meanwhile, farmers belonging to Jinjeru village of Pedana mandal bought 30 bags of compost-urea from a fertilisers shop and were cheated as the compost sacks were filled with sand and stones.

Taking advantage of farmers’ poverty and innocence, seeds and fertiliser dealers are allegedly supplying poor quality and fake seeds and fertilisers.

Though traders cheat farmers every year, this time the intensity is more, as there is the officials concerned are not inspecting the quality of seeds.

In fact, mandal agriculture officers (AO) concerned must inspect every shop that sells seeds and fertilisers. They have the right to seize shops if they find any irregularities regarding seeds and fertilisers’ quality. The district agriculture officers also have the power to register cases and close the shops. But the authorities concerned seem to be in slumber.

No seeds and fertilisers at RBKs

The government boasted that it has established Rythu Bharosa Centres (RBKs) to help farmers in all aspects, from supplying seeds and fertilisers to buying their produce. But the situation at ground level is quite contrast. At most of these centres, there are no sales of paddy and other seeds. The government is allotting very less quantity of seeds to RBKs, which cater to the needs of just 10 to 20 farmers within its limits.

In Krishna district, there are 390 RBKs. The agriculture department had allotted just 6,690 quintals of paddy seeds, which suffices only 10 per cent of the actual needs of farmers. This is forcing farmers to depend on private dealers.

A farmer from Pedana mandal in Krishna district, Sammeta Satyanarayana, said that there are no paddy seed stocks in the RBK in their village and the surrounding villages. ‘Hence, I was forced to purchase seeds from a dealer in Pedana,’ he added.

This is the plight of not only Satyanarayana, but many farmers are buying seeds from private dealers and shops due to unavailability at RBKs.

Meanwhile, fertilisers also not sold through RBKs. Actually, fertilisers are sold at Primary Agriculture Cooperative (Credit) Societies (PACS). But so far this year, there are no signs of selling fertilisers through RBKs or PACS. Farmers lamented that generally they depend on private dealers for pesticides only. But now they have to depend on private dealers for seeds and fertilisers.