Khammam officials on the lookout for traders who sell spurious seeds

KHAMMAM: As the Vaanakalam (Kharif season) is right around the corner, the Khammam district administration has started taking stringent steps to prevent the sale of spurious paddy and cotton seeds in its limits. According to official sources, the district administration has already deployed five task force teams to monitor the same. Each team comprises one police sub-inspector, two constables, one agriculture officer and one tahsildar.

It has to be mentioned here that the spread of spurious seeds was major issue in Khammam district last year and the year before that, as a result of which  both the officials and farmers had suffered a lot. Scores of cotton and chilly farmers had faced huge losses in both the years after purchasing such spurious seeds from fraudulent traders, putting them in dire straits.

The task force teams are currently closely monitoring the five agriculture divisions — Khammam, Kusumanchi, Madhira, Wyra and Sattupalli.  These teams will inspect all 468 seed shops in the district and if any shop is found selling or possessing spurious seeds, the owners would be booked under Prevention Detention (PD) Act. Meanwhile, after noticing that the spurious seeds enter the district from Nandhyala and Guntur areas in Andhra Pradesh through trains, lorries and buses, the task force teams have increased vigil along the borders. 

It is learnt that many fake seed manufacturing units transport spurious seeds in the guise of parcels containing other items. Meanwhile, when Express interacted with some official sources, they said that the Agriculture Department has taken steps to bring required quantities of seeds to the district for ensuing Vaanakalam. It is learnt that the officials will bring around 17,550 quintals of paddy seeds, 6,29,475 packets of BG-2 cotton seeds and 100 quintals of red gram seeds. In Bhadradri Kothagudem, the officials have deployed two task force teams and have registered 12 cases against fake seed traders in the district.