Reports of crop damage after the use of weedicide have been received from all over the state barring three districts of Gurgaon, Narnaul and Rewari. In Panipat district only complaints regard of damage in 170 acres have been received till now. The affected villages in the district include Patti Kalyana, Jatal, Machchloli, Bhadra, Babarpur, Sanoli Khurd, Garhi Besak, Jurasi Khas and Kiwana.
The State�s Agriculture Department has asked its officials in all districts to submit reports in this regard and samples of the damaged crops and weedicides had been sent to the Centre as testing facilities were not available in the state.
�The district agriculture officials sent a tentative report to the department which appeared to be unrealistic and they had been asked to prepare it again after a survey and submit it to the office of director by January 27�, said Mr R.K. Khullar, Director, Agriculture Department , Haryana.
However damages were contained up to a few thousand acres as the department taking an action banned the sale of weedicides against which the farmers had complained, claimed the director.
The area of crop damaged due to spurious weedicide should not exceed 2000 acres, added Mr Khullar.
Sources in the Agriculture Department said some companies were smuggling weedicide into country to evade heavy duties and this weedicide marketed by wholesalers through small vendors and commission agents was responsible for damage to the crop. The spurious weedicide was taken off the shelves by these sellers as soon as the Agriculture Department banned some weedicide brands in the last week of December, informed the sources.
However one seller at Panipat confessed he got the weedicide from a wholesaler from Mumbai and his source was being investigated, said the sources.
Explaining the reason behind the presence of smuggled and spurious weedicide in the market sources said the weedicide used for the wheat crop with its technical name Sulfo Sulfuron is manufactured by multinational companies in the country which then is transformed into Wet Dispersible Granules (WDG). As the highly specialised and costly technique in involved in manufacturing and converting the Sulfo Sulfuron into WDG the reputed and big companies were in the business only. Enticed with the high demand and bigger margin in the sale of weedicide in the region some unscrupulous companies were importing the weedicide from China illegally and poor quality of this smuggled weedicide could be the reason behind the crop damage, said the sources.
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