DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Launching a crackdown against spurious fertilisers to ensure high quality agricultural inputs to the state farmers as per directives of Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann, the Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has cancelled the licences of two fertiliser companies for supplying substandard Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) to the cooperative societies in the state.

The companies of which licences have been cancelled include M/s Madhya Bharat Agro Products Limited and M/s Krishna Phoschem Pvt. Ltd.

Revealing this here today in a press communiqu?, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian informed that as many as 40 samples were collected from the DAP stocks supplied to MARKFED by these companies. Out of these samples, 24 were found non-standard as per Fertiliser Control Order 1985 and the results of 2 samples is still awaited.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, GoI has also been informed about this for further necessary action, he added.

Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that the Agriculture department has launched a Quality Control drive across the state and set a target of testing 4700 fertiliser samples during FY 2024-25.

Director Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Jaswant Singh informed that as many as 1004 samples of fertilisers have been collected under the Quality Control campaign and sent to different labs for testing so far.

The Agriculture Minister asked the Director Agriculture to review the supply of agricultural inputs to ensure the quality products to the farmers. The Director informed that the sampling of fertilisers is being done continuously in the districts according to their targets and monitoring is being ensured regarding the arrival of DAP (18:46) and other fertilisers.

Gurmeet Singh Khudian directed all the district heads to ensure appropriate action on priority basis if they receive any complaint regarding substandard/spurious fertilisers or any other agricultural products. Negligence at the anyone's end will not be tolerated at all, he warned.
(editor@dailyworld.in)