Crackdown against Fake Seeds, Pesticides and Fertilizers

Last Updated: 22 August 2024

7 teams of Flying Squad to ensure supply of quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides[1]
-- The flying squad teams are headed by Joint Directors and Chief Agriculture Officers of the department
-- 1 team of the flying squad has been set aside for 3-4 districts
-- These teams will also visit shops, manufacturing units of seeds, fertilisers & pesticides

“Anyone found cheating farmers will be dealt with strictly" - Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Gurmeet Singh Khudian[2]

DAP scam[3]: AAP Govt exposed this scam as 60% samples of DAP FAILED
-- DAP is allocated to the state by the Centre
-- A letter has been written to Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers informing about poor quality
-- 40 samples tested by the department, 24 failed the quality test

1. Action on Fake Seeds

Punjab Government cancelled the licences of 9 dealers whose 11 samples of seeds showed poor germination[2:1]

The samples of 9 seed companies were tested and Laboratory results confirmed that the seeds had poor germination capability

  • Acting on complaints of poor quality cotton seeds in villages of Mansa, Action was taken under the Seeds Act, 1966, and the Seeds Control Order, 1983
  • Flying Squads: The district administration formed a flying squad at the block level to monitor the illegal sale of PUSA-44 and the sale of spurious seeds[4]
  • The district and block-level officers to conduct regular checks of seed-selling shops and in case of irregularity action against the sellers under the Seed Act[4:1]

2. Crackdown on sub-standard fertilizers

Agriculture department has set a target of testing 4700 fertiliser samples during FY 2024-25[5]

As of July 2024, 1004 samples of fertilisers have been collected under the Quality Control campaign and sent to different labs for testing

Punjab Govt has canceled the licences of 2 fertiliser companies for supplying substandard Diammonium Phosphate (DAP)[6]

  • The two companies are M/s Madhya Bharat Agro Products Limited and M/s Krishna Phoschem Pvt. Ltd whose license is cancelled

3. Check on Pesticides[7]

Target of testing 4500 pesticide samples during FY 2024-25

As many as 1009 samples have been collected and 18 found misbranded so far

References:

  1. https://www.indianewscalling.com/punjab/news/140860-seven-flying-squad-teams-to-ensure-sale-of-quality-seeds-pesticides-fertilisers-in-punjab.aspx ↩︎

  2. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/poor-germination-of-cotton-seeds-9-dealers-lose-licence/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/60-dap-samples-fail-test-cm-asks-minister-to-act-against-guilty/ ↩︎

  4. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/patiala/flying-squad-formed-to-check-sale-of-pusa-44-617281 ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. https://www.babushahi.com/full-news.php?id=187733 ↩︎

  6. https://www.dailypioneer.com/2024/state-editions/punjab-agri-dept-tightens-noose-around-spurious-pesticide-dealers.html ↩︎

  7. https://www.babushahi.com/full-news.php?id=188543 ↩︎