The government Tuesday said incidents of sale of herbicide-tolerant cotton seeds have been reported from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana.
In the Lok Sabha, Minister of State of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Purushottam Rupula also said that no incident of sale of pesticides with banned chemicals have been reported.
Herbicide-tolerant (HT) seeds are not approved for use in the country, according to the government.
As per the Maharashtra government, Rupala said illegal HT cotton seeds were seized in the districts of Nagpur, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Nandurbar, Yavatmal and Gadchiroli.
"Total of 9,387 illegal cotton seed packets and 1,087 kilogram loose cotton seeds valued at Rs 102.87 lakh were confiscated. Further, 20 FIRs have been filed against the culprits in the respective police stations," Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in a written reply.
In Gujarat, there were eight incidents of sale of HT cotton seeds.
Seven FIRs were registered against those accused of selling HT cotton seeds in Vadodara, Kutch, Sabarkantha and Gir-Somnath and one is under process in Bhavnagar district, Tomar said.
According to the minister, there have been sporadic cases of seizure of HT cotton seeds in Telangana.
"In 2019, 302 seed samples were tested and 8 were found HT positive. Taking punitive actions, 40 cases have been booked, 44 persons have been arrested, administrative action taken against 7 seed licenses and 29,647 quintals of seed stock having HT trait worth Rs 907 lakh have been seized," Tomar said.
During Question Hour, Rupala said various steps are being taken to reduce input costs, including encouraging organic farming and use of neem-coated urea.
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