Adilabad: As a result of the state government’s crackdown on fake cotton seeds and their sale, a manufacturing unit was detected and fake cotton seeds seized at various places in the erstwhile Adilabad district in the last three days.
Agriculture and police personnel busted a fake cotton seed manufacturing unit locally and found that these cotton seeds were sold under branded names in Adilabad city and the police arrested a person named Erravothu Raju at Kothapalli village in Tandoor mandal on May 24. 30 kg fake cotton seeds seized. ,
Raju admitted that he had purchased fake cotton seeds from Tirumalashetty Ramakrishna of Punnur village in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Ramakrishna Komaram Bhima was living in Rollapadu village of Rebena mandal of Asifabad district.
On May 22, officials seized 70 kg of loose cotton seeds being transported to Maharashtra through Gudem village of Chintalmanepalli mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
The police arrested Chapile Vinod of Gangapur village of Chintalmanepalli and three other Chapiles Purushottam, Bolaboyena Ashok and Bolaboyena Krishna were absconding.
The agriculture department also suspects that some miscreants are using the seeds collected from local ginning factories to make cotton seeds, packing them under different brand names and selling them to gullible farmers.
It is also suspected that some people collect seeds from local ginning factories, apply chemical coating on them, pack them in pouches and sell them.
A joint operation of agriculture and police on Saturday detected a fake cotton seed manufacturing unit in Ramnagar Colony of Adilabad city and seized 400 kg of fake seeds and 935 seed packets worth Rs 19 lakh and arrested Sama Ashok Reddy and A. Rajender and Kaparthi were arrested. Manikant was absconding.
It was found that 17,000 cotton seed packets were sold mainly in the markets of Adilabad and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts.
Agriculture officials are checking fertilizer and pesticide shops to seize fake cotton seeds of Meenakshi Company.
District Agriculture Officer D. Pullaiya said that a group of people runs ‘Meenakshi Seed Company’ and also markets the seeds of ‘Safal’ company, but they are manufacturing their own seed packets and collecting the seeds from Karnataka. They are using loose seeds and selling them locally and giving them brand names. Pandurang, Pudami J16, Meenakshi Gold and White Gold.
He said that Sama Ahok Reddy, owner of Meenakshi Seed Company, does not have any permission and license to create new brands and he has to market the seeds of the successful brand locally. He said they have sent the seized cotton seed samples to Hyderabad for lab testing.
Pulaiya said that if a farmer sows seeds of these brands being sold by Meenakshi Seed Company, there is no assurance of yield and the seeds may or may not germinate.
