Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir has said that Government will take all necessary steps to strengthen the existing infrastructure of laboratories of the Agriculture Department for conducting quality and transparent tests of samples of pesticides and fertilizers in the State.The Minister was chairing a meeting of officers of various wings of the department which was convened to take stock of supply of stocks and distribution of pesticides and fertilizers being distributed among the farmers in the State. He said while upgrading the laboratories on modern lines, this will enable the department to test all the samples in the state laboratories to save time and making timely supply to the farmers. Several times the farmers are complaining to the Government that some firms are supplying sub-standard pesticides and fertilizers which has resulted in hampering the production and also compromised with the quality, said Mr. Mir.The Minister directed the concerned authorities to submit a detailed list of requirements to the administrative department within a week’s time so that the requisite funds are arranged accordingly. He maintained that government will make all out efforts to control the menace of spurious pesticides and fertilizers to the farmers in the State, adding that state’s economy lies in horticulture sector so the distribution of spurious pesticides and fertilizers to the farmers is pre-requisite for the welfare of this sector.
The Minister said that to streamline the mechanism the pesticides and fertilizers will be checked at the entry points for which two checking points at Lakhanpur and Lower Munda (Qazigund) are being set up.The Minister directed the authorities to convey the leading pesticides and fertilizers manufacturing companies from whom these are lifted to convey the batch number in advance to the Law Enforcement wing of the department. Commissioner/Secretary Agriculture Production Dr. Asgar Samoon, Director Agriculture Jammu Mr. Ajay Khajuria, Director Law Enforcement Mr. M.S.Katoo, Director Research SKUAST Jammu, Prof Ajay Koul, Agri Chemists Mr. G. D. Gupta and I. H. Mir besides senior officers of the Agriculture Production Department and its allied wings attended the meeting.