TS To Bring New Act To Curb Fake Seeds

May 02, 2017 10:56

The Telangana State Government has unveiled its plans to bring in a new stringent Act sooner, to curb sale of fake or spurious seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, said the State CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Those who will sell fake seeds, fertilizers or the pesticides will be booked under the “Preventive Detention Act” and an Ordinance in this regard will be implemented shortly, said KCR. The Telangana CM asked the agriculture officials to take up the survey of agricultural lands in all the districts from May 10 to June 10. The officials should prepare an exact database even, for implementation of the Rs 8,000 per acre (Rs 4,000 for kharif and Rs 4,000 for rabi) every year as financial assistance to the farmers, from the coming year.

Stringent measures against those adulterating food items, and such individuals should be severely punished by the Telangana Government. The farmers should be encouraged to grow quality vegetables, fruit and food items and food processing should also be done by them, said KCR. The CM also requested Union Minister for fertilizers and chemicals, Ananth Kumar, over phone to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers for the coming Kharif season, which is from July –October during the south-west monsoon.

Furthermore, a review meeting was held by the CM, on devising the policy to provide input expenditure to the farmers, seeds supply, constitution of the farmers association, food processing and attaining self sufficiency in food production and other related issues.

“The Agriculture extension officers will have to tour villages from May 10 to June 10. They have to collect comprehensive details on agriculture lands. Based on this data input expenditure is given to the farmers. The government will take stringent action if the information gathered is wrong. Agriculture officers will visit each farmer and the farmers should give all the required information and cooperate,” said KCR.

The CM also instructed the officials concerned to collect the required fertilizer for the monsoon during the summer itself and stock it. The CM was also informed by the officials that, around 16 lakh tonnes of fertilizer was needed during the rainy season and as on date, 8 lakh tonnes was available. Some fertilizers were available locally.