‘Over 15,000 kgs of spurious pesticides seized in Srinagar’

Srinagar: The Law Enforcement wing of the Agriculture Department in separate raids this year have seized 15,000 Kgs of spurious pesticides in the summer capital of Srinagar alone, officials said.

Senior officials within the law enforcement wing of Agriculture Department, while sharing details of seized pesticides, told KNO news agency that first Mancozeb 75 percent wp batch no M-152/038 with manufacturing date 04 January 2021 and Expiry date 03 January 2023 manufactured by M/s Monsoon agro chemicals Pvt. Ltd/ M/s Oswal crop protection Pvt Ltd was seized.

They said that the quantity of seized stock of this batch is 4,977 Kgs.

“Later, MITADO with active ingredient Carbendazim 12 percent and Mancozeb 63 percent manufactured by same M/S Monsoon Agro chemicals Pvt Ltd/ M/S Oswal protection of Pvt Ltd was seized thrice in three different raids,” the officials said..

In first raid, 5097 Kgs of batch M-111/125 were seized and later 597 Kgs of batch M-111/127 and 4337 Kgs of batch M-111/126 were also seized, they said.

Deputy Director Law Enforcement Kashmir Mohammad Younis Choudhary told KNO that they are taking samples of every pesticide being sold in the market and if testing of samples shows it can prove harmful to our agriculture/horticulture sector, it is being seized and misbranded.

Pertinently, fruit growers across Kashmir said that their crops are under threat from spurious pesticides in circulation and the main reason for the scab and diseases in orchards is because of spurious pesticides.

Younis Choudhary said that the sale of spurious pesticide is a concern. “It is a serious concern and every possible effort is taken to control it,” he said.

He added that drive against spurious pesticide dealers is going on with full pace across Kashmir and in coming days it will intensified. —(KNO)