Pb agri dept raided 3,483 pesticide shops in 4 months

To ensure supply of quality agrochemicals to farmers, the Punjab department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare raided 3,483 pesticide shops in four months since April 1. 

Kahan Singh Pannu, director of Mission Tandarust Punjab, said they had collected 1,584 pesticide samples during the period. In case any sample was found misbranded, department initiated immediate legal action against the dealer as per Insecticide Act, 1968, he said. 

Since April 2020, one case has been filed in court and two FIRs registered against defaulters. Also, show-cause notices have been issued to dealers and licences of eight of them cancelled. 

He said a similar drive for monitoring pesticide supply was being carried out over the last two years, due to which there was a reduction in usage of 675 MT (technical grade) pesticides worth Rs 355 crore in 2019 over the year before. He pegged the change at 18%.

Use of pesticide was 3,838 MT during 2018, but the same reduced to 3163 during 2019. Pannu said vigorous checking of pesticide shops resulted in decrease in percentage of misbranded/ failed samples from 4.51% in 2017-18 to 2.89% in 2018-19 and 2.44% in 2019-20. "This is a clear indication of the improvement in quality of agrochemicals during the recent years," he said.