Agriculture officials draw flak for shortage of cotton seeds

They are coming forward to buy a particular variety seed as they growers registered 12 quintals of cotton per acre and saw considerable profits when they had sown it last year.

Adilabad: Officials of the agriculture department are drawing flak for their failure to ensure sufficient stocks of cotton seeds and thus causing inconvenience to farmers. Cotton crop is grown in 4.5 lakh acres in Adilabad district, considered as one of major producers of the cash crop in Asia. Farmers need 9 lakh packets containing 450 grams each to raise the crop.

However, 6.98 lakh packets are kept available at 318 seed dealers located across the district, according to officials of the agriculture department. This has indicated a deficiency of 2 lakh packets.

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Due to laxity of the officials in procuring sufficient cotton seed variety, farmers are forced to stand in long queue lines at 61 outlets of the seeds in district headquarters facing sweltering heatwave conditions.

They are coming forward to buy a particular variety seed as they growers registered 12 quintals of cotton per acre and saw considerable profits when they had sown it last year.

The farmers alleged that some outlets created an artificial shortage of the Rashi 659 variety seeds which were already diverted to neighboring Maharashtra where farmers grow the cotton crop. They accused the officials of the agriculture department of lack of foresightedness and resulted in the current turmoil for the seeds.

Local MLA Payal Shankar said that he had never seen such pitiable scenes of farmers standing in long queues at the outlets. He opined that the government did not chalk out an action plan leading to the chaos and huge demand for the seeds among the farmers.

He demanded the officials to take steps to avoid inconvenience to the growers and to import enough seeds to the district.

Agriculture Joint Director Pullaiah said that 1.20 lakh packets were procured this year as against 1.10 packets sold in 2023. He stated that steps were being taken to bring additional packets in the two days. He noted that they were consulting manufacturers of the seeds to overcome the shortage and were reviewing the situation at regular intervals.