LAHORE: The Agricul-ture Department has taken vigorous action against fake pesticides during the year 2023 to ensure the supply of quality agricultural poisons to the farmers.

In this regard, the Department of Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticides under the leadership of Secretary Agriculture, Punjab Nadir Chattha continued to crackdown on fake agricultural drugs and seized 1.174 million kilograms of poisons during these operations.

The value of the seized fake and adulterated poisons is Rs 370 million. In addition, 9084 samples were sent to the laboratories for analysis to check the quality of agricultural poisons, out of which 273 samples were found to be substandard.

Raids are conducted on the basis of intelligence/Secret information. Total 555 raids were conducted and 679 cases were registered in 2023. During this campaign, 242 people were arrested on the spot.

The spokesman of Agriculture Department, Punjab further added that 19 illegal factories/firms manufacturing fake poisons were caught during the year 2023 and 734 agricultural companies were registered as distributors in Punjab while 17,099 people were issued dealership license.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024