To check the sale of spurious seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to farmers, the Haryana government will now take samples of each consignment of agricultural material sold to farmers.
Additional chief secretary, agriculture and farmers’ welfare department, Sumita Misra on Friday said a new sampling procedure has been developed by the department to draw the samples for testing on a priority basis of fertilizers and pesticides premises of the state manufacturers as well as each authorized wholesaler from outside of Haryana.
She said provision has also been made by the agriculture department to take samples from each and every consignment during the supply of agricultural material through all government agencies.
Misra said year-wise sampling targets of seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides have been fixed to make good quality inputs available to the farmers.
She said all the deputy directors of agriculture and farmers’ welfare departments have been instructed to strictly follow the new sampling procedure.
This apart, a quality control campaign is being executed every year in Kharif and Rabi season by constituting flying squads consisting of state-level officers in which samples are also drawn under the supervision of senior officers in order to make available good quality seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides to the farmers of the state.
The ACS said this time the agriculture department has also decided to launch a special quality control campaign to make the farmers and sellers of pesticides, seeds, and fertilizers aware of the judicious use of agricultural inputs.
Farmers have been advised to take the bills while purchasing seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers so that action may be initiated against the defaulters in case the agricultural material is found non-standard.
The department has also constituted a district-level committee in districts Yamunanagar, Faridabad, Sonepat, Rohtak, and Jhajjar headed by deputy commissioners concerned in order to check the pilferage and black marketing of urea fertiliser, Misra said.