Ahead of the ensuing kharif season, the Agriculture department here has chalked out an action plan to curb the menace of spurious seeds, particularly the sale of “unapproved” herbicide tolerant variety cotton seed (BG-III), in the district.
Checking a menace
A district-level task force comprising officials of the Agriculture and Police departments has been constituted to maintain strict vigil along the inter-State borders to prevent illegal transport and sale of fake and unapproved seeds in the district, which shares a long border with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting in Kothagudem on Monday.
The meeting, chaired by District Revenue Officer Kiran Kumar, was attended by Kothagudem DSP S.M. Ali, Agriculture joint director Abhimanyudu and representatives of seed dealers’ associations, among others.
The meeting also decided to invoke provisions of the Preventive Detention (PD) Act against those involved in transport, storage and sale of unapproved and fake seeds.
Orientation programme
The Agriculture department has embarked on a slew of orientation programmes to sensitise all the stakeholders on the potential adverse impacts of using the unapproved seeds such as HT variety cotton seed on crop biodiversity, sources said.
Kharif plan
The move gains prominence in the wake of the ambitious kharif action plan for the 2019-2020 crop year envisaging sowing of kharif crops on over 1.73 lakh hectares in the district.
Cotton acreage is expected to be around 50,000 hectares followed by the key kharif crop of paddy at around 46,000 hectares, said sources in Agriculture department.
In Khammam district, agriculture officials have planned sowing of kharif crops on around 2.30 lakh hectares, including cotton on 96,000 hectares and paddy on 59,000 hectares.
The department has chalked out arrangements to ensure supply of adequate quantity of seeds of various kharif crops including 5.72 lakh cotton seeds to the farmers ahead of the forthcoming sowing season.