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Indian Agri Dept alerts farmers against cheap pesticides

Director of the Agriculture Department Sutantar Kumar Aeri has urged the farmers to not fall prey to any dealer selling them cheap pesticides.

Officials of the department have said dealers were attracting farmers by selling them cheap but spurious pesticides, which could harm their fields and crops. So, the farmers have been advised to buy pesticides only from registered dealers.

The department has also provided an email address and a phone number which the farmers can use to get information regarding certain pesticides. The number and email id are 8437312288 and qccpunjab2019@gmail.com, respectively.

The Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department had also busted a gang involved in supplying spurious pesticides to farmers recently. A pesticide was being sold to farmers in the name of Indian Crop Science, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. According to Chief Agriculture Officer Nazar Singh, the farmers were being duped in the name of cheap pesticide which was, in reality, a spurious one.

The company was not recognised by the Agriculture Directorate, Punjab, for operations in the state. After seizing the pesticides, its samples were sent to Pesticides Testing Laboratory in Chandigarh where they samples had failed.

Subsequently, cases under Sections 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 274 (Adulteration of drugs) and 120-B (Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code were registered against suppliers.

The department has been reiterating the firm commitment of the state government to safeguard interests of the farmers. Officials said the department was making all-out efforts to ensure the sale of genuine pesticides in the district under the Mission Tandarust programme.

The Agriculture Department had already been directed to plug sale and storage of spurious pesticides to protect farmers at every cost. The campaign would continue in the coming days.