Govt. fails to check inflow of fake pesticide brands

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 17: There is strong resentment brewing among the farmers against the agriculture department for its failure to check the inflow of fake brands of pesticides in the market which have taken a heavy tool on the agriculture production in Jammu and Kashmir.

The latest in the series is the case of widely used batches of Butaveer, a weedicide and KRICEL, an insecticide, which due to their ineffectiveness resulted in huge losses to the farmers.

Sources said that the enforcement wing of the department has advised cultivators not to use Butaveer batch No BuTJK0190 and KRICEL batch No KRE1JK/256 as these have been found substandard in the quality control lab test.

Similarly, the farmers have also been advised not to use Butaveer (Nanda Dawa)  batch No ButJK0190 and Benmain (fungicide) batch No MA00908CB as these have also been found of low quality after lab tests.

Sources said that farmers have been approaching the department with complaints of the ineffectiveness of these brands during the sowing season and following the tests these were found of sub-standard quality.

Though officials do not rule out the pumping of counterfeit make of the twin brands by some fake company, but it were the farmers who remained at the receiving end in the whole misdemeanor. Sources said that the department has desperately failed to check the sale of counterfeit brands in the market despite the fact that it has claimed to have launched a special drive against the menace.

Earlier, it had been reported that a large number of pesticide dealers were looting farmers by selling misbranded items to earn easy money.

“The most common victim is the farmer, who had to rely on these chemicals to save his crop. When they fail, nobody comes to his rescue. Only answer he gets is that steps are being taken against the companies”, said Balwant Singh, a farmer from R.S Pura.

Director Agriculture Ajay Khajuria said that he will have to check about the specific advisory but said that at times, they have found some specific brands below the mark.

He said so far the drive had proved successful and a large quantity of misbranded items had been seized.