KENDRAPARA: A large number of farmers of Aul block in Kendrapara district are cursing their fate for sowing hybrid seeds which have not germinated. The annoyed farmers have brought allegations of supply of spurious summer (dalua) paddy seeds by the suppliers and the Agriculture department. The seeds were sown in February and were to flower by June but there is no sign of the saplings bearing fruit so far.
Ajaya Rout, a farmer of Batipada said, “All my labour and money invested on my land has gone waste because of the spurious seeds.” Ajaya had sown ‘dalua’ paddy seeds supplied by Agriculture Department under Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) scheme and planted the seedlings in his paddy field in February. “The plant grew but did not bear any flower”, said a worried Ajaya.
Nearly 2,000 farmers of Angarakha, Dahianta, Telipatana, Sahira and Batipada in Aul block who had sown the seeds on more than 2200 acres are now all at sea over repaying the loans availed.“I had sown paddy seeds in February and hoped to earn good profits but all the saplings have wilted and I am now worried as how to repay the Rs 40,000 which I had borrowed from village cooperative society for cultivation purpose,” said Dinabandhu Sahoo of Dahianta village.
Ashok Samal, a farmer of Telipatana said, on the advice of Block Agriculture Officer, a large number of farmers sowed hybrid paddy seeds with the hope to get 30 to 35 quintals of paddy per acre. But, the seeds failed to germinate.Block Agriculture Officer, Saroj Kumar Jena said, “We provided ‘Telengana Sona’ variety of hybrid paddy seeds to many farmers of Aul in February to raise summer paddy crop under ATMA scheme. The farmers were also advised to use good quality fertilisers, pesticides and sufficient water for germination of seeds but many of them used low quality fertilisers, pesticides and did not water their crops adequately due to which the seeds failed to germinate”.
However, many farmers refuted the allegations saying they had used quality fertiliser and pesticides. “We also watered it as much was required but the barren seeds provided by the department did not germinate,” said Ramakanta Patra, a farmer of Dahianta village.Meanwhile, on Tuesday, district unit president of Krusaka Sabha Umesh Singh demanded action against the officials and seed suppliers.