Officials say substandard wheat seed supplied by D.I. Khan Seed center
PESHAWAR
The Standing Committee on Agriculture was informed on Wednesday that 655 farmers across various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been affected by the supply of substandard wheat seed by the provincial agriculture department. The affected districts include Mardan, Malakand, Upper Swat, Hangu, Tank, Mansehra, and Charsadda.
The special secretary of KP agriculture department informed the meeting convened under the chairmanship of Muhammad Abdul Salam Afridi that the substandard wheat seed had been supplied by the Dera Ismail Khan (D.I.Khan )Seeds Center, adding that a departmental inquiry had been completed and some officers involved had already been suspended.
However, the committee members described the data presented by the agriculture department as unsatisfactory and directed the Kisan (farmers ) Board representatives to submit detailed and verified data on the affected farmers and districts in the next meeting.
The forum underlined that this will allow a comparison with the agriculture department’s data and assist in preparing an accurate report on the issue.
The meeting of the committee held at the KP Assembly secretariat was also attended by its members including lawmakers Ajmal Khan, Zarshad Khan, Fazal Elahi, Sher Ali Afridi, and Ms. Amina Sardar.
Besides, special secretary agriculture department, relevant officers, representatives of the law department, and officials of the KP Assembly were also present.
The committee reviewed the progress on the implementation of directives issued in previous meetings.
The Committee Chairman stated that on one hand farmers and landowners had suffered losses, and on the other hand the province had been affected by reduced wheat production; therefore, the affected farmers must be compensated at all costs.
During the meeting, the Standing Committee directed the agriculture department officials to centralize agricultural data from all districts across the province, emphasizing that agriculture holds the status of a backbone of the national economy.
The Committee Chairman further instructed that working papers for the next meeting be submitted on time and that all documents be duly verified.
