Srinagar, August 11: Agriculture Department Kashmir has appealed to the farmers to be proactive to highlight the sale of substandard fertilizers and pesticides and the price rise associated with it.
Assistant Director Law Enforcement Kashmir, Department of Agriculture, Muhammad Feroz said every dealer who sells fertilizer or pesticides should have licences that should be displayed at the shops and farmers have a right to check it.
“In case of fertilizers, the farmer or the consumer should take the bill through Point of Sale (PoS) devices installed at each retailer shop and this device should be checked by the consumers and in case of pesticides there is a cash memo system,” he said.
Feroz also said that every batch of pesticides and fertilizers that come to Kashmir are sampled and dealers should display the sample certificates of pesticides and fertilizers.
“If these things are being implemented by the dealers, people or farmers should report the complaints against them with enforcement teams or directly with the Agriculture Department and action will be taken against such dealers,” the AD Law Enforcement said.
“In case farmers have any other doubt after use of fertilizers and chemicals we can do further sampling so that we can check it out and take appropriate action,” he said.
As per farmers over the past many years substandard fertilizers and pesticides are seen in the market which is a threat to agriculture and horticulture sectors.
Director Law Enforcement J&K, Iqbal Singh said the department has instructed enforcement officers of all the districts to review the overall working of the law enforcement agency.
“There are no fertilizer manufacturing units in Kashmir or Jammu. Mostly it comes from outside. There should be no compromise on it. We initiate strict action according to law against retailers if found selling fertilizers, pesticides without following proper procedure,” he said.
Singh said the department takes regular samples from markets to do quality checks of the fertilizers and pesticides. “We also have a testing lab at Lal Mandi. If any sample is found substandard then we do the reanalysis outside J&K at another lab to cross-check it,” he said.
Singh mentioned that over the last three months of this year, the department has found almost 25 samples of substandard organic fertilizers in Kashmir.
He said in 2022, some 24 samples of organic fertilizers were found substandard and action was initiated. “Our aim is to ensure the availability of quality insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers to the farmers through proper sales outlets well in time,” he added.
On the other hand, as per officials, the department also faces manpower shortage, especially in districts which is also a hurdle in its enforcement.
The officials said there are 40 percent of inspector posts that are vacant and the department has taken up the matter with the Agriculture Department.
