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Punjab agriculture department withdraws order allowing private dealers to sell PR 126 at MRP
The Punjab agriculture department order on PR126 was withdrawn following opposition from farmers’ unions who demanded a check on hoarding by private dealers
: The Punjab agriculture department on Tuesday withdrew its order to allow seed dealers to sell the PR 126 short-duration variety of paddy crop on “unregulated” maximum retail price (MRP) following opposition from farmers’ unions that demanded the state government to provide the seeds directly to agriculturists and check its hoarding and black marketing by private players.
During a meeting of seed dealers with director agriculture Gurwinder Singh on the department’s order to crack down on the black marketing of the PR126 seeds in Chandigarh on Monday, the director had verbally allowed the dealers to sell the seeds at ₹100 per kg, which is around the same price as the MRP, a department official said.
Following the meeting, joint director agriculture Avtar Singh issued the order to allow sale of PR 126 variety of paddy at MRP.
Secretary agriculture, Dilraj Singh Sadhawalia ordered director Gurwinder to issue all communications to districts and restrain all the other officials from issuing instructions on the same.
“The order issued by joint director agriculture Avtar Singh to allow sale of PR 126 variety on MRP by private players has been withdrawn immediately. These orders were issued without the approval of the director. I am issuing a show-cause notice to the joint director regarding this,” Sadhawalia said.
While issuing the order on Monday, the department withdrew its earlier order issued on May 5 and directed that if sale of seed by a private dealer is stopped as taking action on that order, it should be allowed now.
In the May 5 order, the joint director of agriculture said that it has been learnt that some private seed dealers are selling PR 126 variety at prices higher than the fixed price of ₹ 43.75 to the farmers, who are suffering financial loss due to this.
“To safeguard rights of farmers, constitute teams under Seed Act 1966 and Seed Control Order 1983 for checking of seed dealers and a daily report must be submitted,” he had ordered.
As per officials, Punjab State Seed Corporation’s PUNSEED and PAU are selling PR 126 seeds for ₹35 and ₹43.75 per kg, respectively. However, the average MRP of 10 kg bag of PR 126 seed in the market is around ₹ 900-1000, which means farmers had to pay around ₹ 100 per kg for seeds.
Last week, Balwinder Singh of Moga had submitted an affidavit at the district agriculture department that a private firm sold him 10 kg of PR 126 seeds for ₹ 1000.
The state government has announced financial assistance of ₹ 1,500 per acre to each of the farmers sowing paddy through the DSR technique, using the PR-126 seed developed by PAU.
However, there is a major shortage of the variety in the market. PAU had developed 2,600 quintals of seeds and put them on sale on March 20.
But in over a month, the entire stock was exhausted. A major share of the seed was purchased by private seed dealers. The huge demand and resultant scarcity have led to the black-marketing of seeds.
Rajinder Singh Deep Singh Wala, vice-president Kirti Kisan Union said, “the government must have controlled the rates and the seed should be supplied directly to the farmers. First, they sold huge stock to the private firms and showed shortage,” he said, asking how can MRP be more than double the price fixed by the government?
BKU (Sidhupur) state president Jagjit Singh Dallewal said that instead of providing seeds to farmers, PUNSEED was providing them to private players, who are selling them at high prices up to ₹ 150 per kg.
“We have spoken to the director of agriculture regarding the non-availability of PR-126 seeds on multiple occasions. But instead of providing it to farmers at cheap rates, they were going to authorise black marketing through MRP,” he added.
