Kathmandu, Nov 1 : Members of the Federal Parliament’s Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee have called for taking legal action against the companies that illegally imported paddy seeds and for providing proper compensation to the affected farmers.
A majority of the Committee members speaking in a meeting of the Committee held at Singha Durbar today drew the Committee’s attention on this. The meeting was presided over by Committee president Purna Kumari Subedi.
Committee member Chhabilal Bishwakarma demanded taking legal action against the company that fleeced the farmers by importing ‘fake’ seeds claiming them to be that of the Graima variety of rice and selling the same to farmers. He also called for properly compensating the affected farmers.
The Seed Act 2045 BS has provisions for imposing fin of Rs 25,000 and annulling the import license of the companies which illegally import seeds and sell substandard seeds to the farmers. This Act is under consideration of the Committee awaiting amendment.
It is said the seed of hybrid Garima variety rice was imported from the Renova Seed Science India Pvt Ltd based in Hyderabad of India and sold and distributed in Nepal. The farmers had bought the seeds of this rice variety for Rs 450 per kilogramme.
Dal Bahadur Rana, Shanta Chaudhari, Bhawani Khapung, among the Committee members drew the attention of the Committee for taking legal action against te Sunrise Agriculture Research Centre Pvt Ltd Lamahi Dang that imported the seeds of other varieties of rice in the name of the Garima variety.
Minister of State for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Ram Kumari Chaudhari informed the Committee that the characteristics of the Garima variety rice were not found in the rice seed the farmers had cultivated taking it for Garima variety.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development had formed a committee to find out the truth and facts after the rice crop farmers had cultivated taking it as belonging to the Garima variety rice failed to bear ears even within 120 to 125 days of cultivation. It is stated the Garima variety rice starts bearing ears within 125 days of cultivation.
Investigation Committee member and representative of the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Ram Narayan Yadav said the features of the Garima variety were not found in the rice cultivated by the farmers.
Garima rice is developed and produced in India. This rice variety was registered in 2015. Farmers had cultivated this variety of rice in Chitwan, Lamjung, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang, Tanahu and the eastern part of Nawalparasi. This variety of rice was cultivated on nearly 14,000 hectares.
The Committee members also heard that the national rice production will slump this year after the Garima variety of rice failed to ripe within the ripening period.
According to the Seed Quality Control Centre, permission was issued to the Company to import 40 tonnes of Garima variety rice seed this year. However, the Company said it purchased 34 tonnes and sold and distributed only 23 tonnes.
Centre’s director Madan Thapa said 15 kilogrammes rice seed is required for cultibation in one hectare of land. He informed the Committee that calculations based on this indicated that the Garima variety rice was cultivated on more than 1,500 hectares of land which results in a loss of around Rs 130 million.
