MOHALI: The Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan today said that teams comprising of the Block Agriculture Officers and other employees, have been constituted in order to ensure availability of top quality seeds of Basmati, Maize, Dal and Paddy for the forthcoming Kharif season-2020.
The teams are conducting checks since 9th May, 2020 on the various seed dealers and have collected 27 samples of various seeds for quality checking and the same have been sent to the concerned seed testing laboratories.
Besides, the farmers also retain seeds of PR variety at their own end and 29 samples of such seeds have been sent for testing by the department at its own cost to the concerned seed testing laboratories. Apart from this, the stock registers, sale and purchase bills are also being checked.
There is no dearth of seeds and they are available in abundant measure on reasonable rates. As far as PR 128 and PR 129 variety of paddy is concerned, these have been released this year by the PAU, Ludhiana. The seeds of this variety are not available with any dealer in the district and the farmers are indulging in cultivation on experimental basis by purchasing these seeds from the Krishi Vigyan Kendar in Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar, Narayangarh and PAU, Ludhiana, said Chief Agricultural Officer Mr. Ranjit Singh Bains.
It must also be mentioned that the District has 28000 hectares of area under paddy and 1200 hectares under basmati thus requiring 6000 quintal seeds.