Farmers’ plea to weed out spurious seeds

Vikarabad: Distressed farmers are seeking government intervention to crack down on fake seed suppliers and take stringent action against them. They say they losing their precious time and financial resources due to losses incurred as a result of use of fake or duplicate seeds and fertilisers.

 Year and year, they have been suffering massive losses, as the officials turn blind eye to the grave issue.Saddled with huge crop losses, some farmers are even taking recourse to extreme act of suicide, unable to pay off loans, bemoan farmer groups. Mahendar, a tenant farmer from Parigi, alleged that seeds and pesticides purchased from Sri Venkateshwara Seeds and Fertilisers hadn’t given any desired result and he had to incur a loss of Rs 70,000 after crops failed in two acres.

 When he asked the fertilizers owner about the quality of seeds, he was threatened.Local farmers said that they have made numerous representations but the government does not seem interested in addressing such a serious issue.