Fake pesticide has allegedly destroyed about 16,000 maunds of cucumber crops in Bahawalnagar and Chishtian causing a loss of over Rs 8 million to the growers.
Growers Tariq Mehmood, of Chak 113/M, Mohammad Rafiq of Chak 113/M, Shahid Mehmood of Chak Noor and Jahangir Ajmad of 27/G told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that when their crops were ready, they were asked by agriculture expert and pesticide dealer Farooq to protect their crop from fungus and whitefly and in this regard the expert prescribed the spray of a company.
When the growers sprayed the pesticide to their crops, it allegedly played havoc with their crops. When they remonstrated with dealer against pesticide, he refused to admit that his pesticide caused damage to their crops. Later, the growers staged protest demonstration over the damage. Kisan Board Bahawalnagar President Khalid Abbas Ghumman appealed to the Punjab chief minister and the Agriculture Department officials to take notice of the incident.
However, Agri Department official Irshad Tabassum has sent samples of the pesticides for laboratory tests.
Tabassum said that the crops of cucumber is very sensitive, it appears that some destructive chemicals were mixed into pesticides which played havoc with the crops.
Provincial Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Asif Manzoor Mohal also expressed his concerns over the heavy loss of growers. Generally, local grower start cultivation of cucumber at the end of November, crop ripe within 45 days and preliminary production of cucumber has been supplied across the country.
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