Spurious paddy seed scam: Farmers in Ludhiana worried about ‘poor quality’ nursery

Making distress calls to agriculture department officials complaining about the stunted growth of seedlings and deficiency in yield

As investigation agencies are making inroads into the spurious paddy seed scam case, the farmers, who had purchased seed from Brar Seed Store, the shop accused of selling spurious seed, and raised paddy nurseries (paneeri), have started making distress calls to agriculture department officials complaining about the stunted growth of seedlings and deficiency in yield.

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“We are receiving distress calls each day from the farmers complaining about the less growth of paddy seedlings. As a solution, we are telling them to buy new seed and create a new nursery, if they are sowing rice with conventional pudding method. Similarly, those opting for DSR have also been advised to buy new seed as this is the right time to sow crops through the DSR,” said chief agricultural officer Narinder Singh Benipal.”

“The department has also asked farmers to submit bills so that action could be taken against the dealers selling spurious seed. Sadly, many farmers do not have the bills,” said Benipal.

Director agriculture, Punjab, Dr Sutantar Kumar Airi, said the department was stressing that farmers should take proper bills while buying agro inputs, including seed, fertilisers and pesticides to ensure stringent action against the firms selling substandard or unauthorised seed of crops.

A Jagraon-based farmer, Baljinder Singh Bhundri, who is one of the key members of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Kisan Club, was arrested on Tuesday as he was allegedly involved in the scam.

According to police, Bhundri was providing the seed of PR 128 and PR 129 varieties of paddy, developed last year by PAU to assess the results as trial.

However, he used the resultant crop to mass produce more seed and sold it to the Brar Seeds Store in Ludhiana without authorisation, the police said.

The raid by the department at the Brar Seed Store, located in front of PAU Gate No 1 on March 11, had taken the lid off the nexus.

The main accused, Hawinder Singh Kaka Brar, was arrested on May 31. Kaka is the son of Hardyal Singh, a former seed expert of PAU. Initially, the FIR was registered against octogenarian Hardyal Singh, but, as Singh was not keeping well, so his son Kaka Brar was arrested as he actually handling the business.

The action against Brar Seed Store owners was taken on the complaint of the district’s chief agricultural officer after a Moga-based farmer alleged that the store was selling PR 128 and PR 129 seeds for Rs 200-250 per kg whereas PAU was selling it for Rs 70/kg only.

The department had collected 11 samples of different rice verities, but out of 11 samples, 10 failed germination test and turned out to be spurious.

The state agriculture department has so far carried out raid on 1,900 seed dealers across the state and revoked the licences of 12 seed stores.