The Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Bharatpur, Chitwan, has initiated a legal procedure against the dealer who sold fake Garima brand paddy seeds to farmers during this year’s plantation season. 

Many farmers in Chitwan have complained that the seeds they bought from a local trader did not have a yield any grains.

“We had planted the hybrid seeds sold under the Garima brand hoping for a good harvest. But the plants did not yield any grains even though we are past the harvesting season,” said Krishna Aryal, a farmer from Khairahani.

Officials at the centre said that the legal process was initiated after confirming that the dealer had in fact sold fake seeds to the concerned farmers.

Garima seeds usually yield rice grains within 135 days.

“But, the paddy stalks have failed to yield anything this season,” said Rajan Dhakal, the centre’s chief. “We suspect that the dealer sold fake seeds to the farmers,” Dhakal said.

The centre had sent the samples of faulty seeds to the Seed Quality Control Centre in Lalitpur for a test on September 23. The test results are yet to come out.

“We will deploy officials in the field and take action against the dealer once we receive the lab report,” said Dhakal.

According to the centre, fake paddy seeds have been planted in 906 bighas of land in Chitwan.

Farmers in Chitwan have been growing Garima paddy seeds in for the last four years. But this season, they had to get rid of paddy plants after they did not yield grains.

“We are looking at huge losses this year,” said Krishna Lama, another farmer from Khairahani.

Garima brand paddy is produced by Renovo Company in Hyderabad, India. Prasant Agrovet is the authorised dealer of the seeds in Chitwan.
“We sold 13,404kg of Garima seeds this year, and they were genuine,” said Pradip Pathak, the dealer owner.

The farmers claimed that they had bought their seeds from Prasant Agrovet and demanded that the dealer should provide compensate them for their loss.