Odisha is apparently ‘seeding’ another farm tinderbox which is all set to bomb farmers anytime soon. The State in 2016-17 has topped the nation with largest proportion of substandard seeds in circulation in the market.
According to the accessed data available with the Agriculture Department, the State has discovered a whopping 27 per cent of seeds in circulation in market as not of standard quality, which is surprisingly the highest in the country.
Of around 904 samples taken for analysis in 2016-17, a high of 243 samples were not of standard quality.
Significantly, the rot is not limited to seeds alone. Even around 3.5 per cent of the fertilisers available in the market in 2016-17 have been found to be substandard, reveals the State Agriculture department data. Though the State average is far better than the national average, the big revelation is samples checked are very low. For instance, when the State has an annual capacity to test as many as 16,040 samples, only 37 per cent of the capacity was utilised in 2016-17, which is among the lowest in the country.
The Agriculture Department data further reveal that when around 1 per cent of samples were found to have physical impurities, over 2 per cent of sample fertilisers were pinpointed with the all-important nutrient deficiencies.
How does this affect farmersIJ In the current context when the BPH (Brown Plant Hopper or Chakada insect) menace is engulfing the State, farmers need to use more potash fertilisers along with pesticides like Buprofrizen to control BPH. But if the potash used is of substandard one then the effect could be disastrous as is visible now, explained a senior expert at the OUAT.
Moreover, a disquieting fact that tumbled out from the Agriculture Department is an average of around 4-8 per cent of pesticides samples analysed in the State since last half a decade were found to be of below the quality norm. These home truths bring to fore the shocker of how the farmers in Odisha are dealing both with the natural and human disasters to continue farming activities.
Significantly, the action taken report by the Agriculture Department looks confounding as during the last half a decade, though the Government has cancelled authorisation letters of around four dozen fertiliser manufacturers but prosecution has not been launched against a single such player during the period, the data revealed.
But the more curious shocker is despite topping the nation in substandard seeds in 2016-17; the Agriculture Department has not only failed to drag any manufacturer to court but also failed to issue even a warning notice to any such seed producers.