Urad error hard to swallow

In a gigantic mix-up, more than 5,000 farmers across Uttar Pradesh were supplied the ‘wrong’ urad seeds for sowing earlier this ye...

In a gigantic mix-up, more than 5,000 farmers across Uttar Pradesh were supplied the ‘wrong’ urad seeds for sowing earlier this year.

“Such reports have been pouring in from Hardoi and Barabanki. All farmers who sowed NDU-1 got zero yield,” confirms Shankar Singh, agricultural scientist and one-man inquiry commission into the urad imbroglio.

Among them is Shankar Passi, a farmer of Hardoi. Considering 70 days too long a resting period between the kharif and rabi cultivations, and worried about his nine unmarried daughters, he sowed the NDU-1 in five bighas of land in February. In 40 days, he had produced healthy, full-grown plants. But they refused to flower.

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So instead of earning the anticipated Rs 25 from each kg of urad, Passi watched his house fall to disrepair. One buffalo died. His daughters remained unmarried. And Rs 20,000, which he had borrowed from a bank, went to waste. He is dependent now on the earnings of his three sons, who work as agricultural labour.

Hundreds of farmers who sowed the NDU-1 variety of urad share Passi’s despair. According to Singh, there was nothing wrong with the seeds per se; it’s just that they were not the right seeds for February. ‘‘I have sought an examination of the seeds in my report. I have directed that seed samples be sent to the National Seeds Corporation (NSC) for further examination.’’

Significantly, Masood Ali, director of Indian Institute of Pulses Research, supports Singh’s contention in a letter dated July 28 to Hardoi DM Bhuvnesh Kumar. ‘‘Urad variety NDU-1 is a kharif crop and the right time to cultivate this variety is (from) July 10 to July 20,’’ he said in response to the several hundred farmers’ enquiries Kumar voiced.

With Ali’s revelation confirming that the NSC had indeed distributed the ‘wrong’ seeds, Kumar has now forwarded copies of the letter and the findings of the inquiry commission to the corporation, asking if they have any answer to this gigantic mistake.

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The Indian Express’s attempts to contact the NSC proved futile.

Lawyer and farmer Abhay Shankar Gaur, who had also sowed the NDU-1 urad on one hectre of land, says: ‘‘Urad seed for the kharif crop was supplied to us as zayad seed. In February, only zayad seeds flower. Our hard work went down the drain and we don’t know if we will be compensated for the losses.’’

The loss is yet to be quantified. Each mini-kit carrying two kg of urad seeds was sold for Rs 25. In Hardoi alone, the Krishi Gyan Kendra distributed 20 quintals of NDU-1 variety of urad seeds. Across UP, the NSC reportedly supplied 105 quintals of NDU-1 seeds.

Kumar himself is uncertain whether farmers will be compensated. He wrote to NSC in June, but is yet to hear from them. The affected farmers, in the meanwhile, have formed a union and are now fighting for compensation.