The menace of spurious seed has not come to notice in other districts, though the early sprouting of soyabean in Adilabad had farmers raising doubts over the genuineness of the seed. Scientists and officials dismissed the mild protests by farmers saying it was a natural phenomena owing to excess rainfall.
There were, however, instances in the past which still haunt farmers who lost crops due to spurious seed. In a couple of cases, the seed manufacturing companies were made to pay compensation to farmers.
It was in 2001 that supply of spurious cotton seed had caused enormous damage to thousands of farmers. The plants of a popular brand had not reached flowering stage, which had resulted in zero yield in hundreds of acres.
long drawn battle
It was a long-drawn battle in the consumer fora for the farmers, whose claim for compensation since they were cheated by the company was upheld not only by the district and State units of the forum but even the Supreme Court. The erring company had to pay compensation worth Rs. 50 lakh to farmers of Tamsi, Jainad, and Adilabad.
Last season, a brand of soyabean failed in germinating properly, which had farmers in 300 acres suffering huge losses. The company settled the matter out of court by paying a compensation of Rs. 10,000 to about 300 farmers.
In Karimnagar, effective monitoring by the task forces constituted by the Agricultural Department had ensured that there were no incidents of farmers suffering from the supply of spurious seeds.
The Joint Director of Agriculture, Tejowath, said that two teams headed by senior officers constantly conducted surprise raids at various seed shops and ensured that there was no supply of spurious material. So far, they have not received any compliant from farmers.
In Nizamabad, officials said the fact that all crops in kharif were nearing harvest and there were no protests showed there was no such problem in the district. In the beginning of the season, some farmers expressed doubts about the quality of red jowar in Armoor area, but it went unnoticed. Farmers, however, said that the problem will arise when crops identified with kharif like soyabean, jowar, maize, blackgram, greengram, redgram, and paddy were harvested and rabi began after Diwali.
Last year, a few complaints were received on the supply of low quality cotton seed in Jukkal and Madnur area.
In 2001, spurious cotton seed caused enormous damage to thousands of farmers
