Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, April 13: As per the directions of Deputy Commissioner, SAS Nagar Smt. Komal Mittal, the Chief Agriculture Officer, SAS Nagar today launched special campaign to sensitise the seed dealers of the district not to sell Pusa-44 and other banned hybrid varieties of paddy seeds.
Chief Agriculture Officer, Dr. Gurmail Singh said that the Punjab Government has completely banned the sale of Pusa-44 and other hybrid seeds of paddy for the Kharif season-2025. For which, a special campaign has also been launched by the Agriculture Department with the aim of preventing the sowing of these varieties. He said that in this matter, surprise checking of seed dealers was done by the officials of the Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department today and during the checking, samples of seeds were also taken to ascertain the quality of the seeds.
He said that on this occasion, strict instructions have been passed to the seed dealers that no seed dealer should sell seeds of banned varieties of paddy. He said that special instructions have been given by the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department to completely stop the sale of varieties brought under ban, despite this, if any shopkeeper is caught selling banned varieties, then strict action will be taken against him under the Seeds Act 1966, Seeds Rules 1968 and Seeds Control Order 1983.
According to the Chief Agriculture Officer, the seed dealers of the district have been told that they should sensitise the farmers to follow the PR varieties of paddy, recommended by the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He said that keeping in mind the declining groundwater table, it is the duty of all of us to make farmers aware of sowing short-maturing varieties of paddy instead of sowing long-maturing varieties.