The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has written a letter to the state government seeking supply of seeds to farmers at affordable price.

BKS general secretary Ambubhai Patel said that while the Corporation pays farmers to prepare seeds, it does not fix the sale price till such time the private traders and seeds firms sell the parent seeds to farmers at higher prices.

“By the time farmers reach the market, there are no takers for their produce,” Patel said in his letter to Dilip Sanghani, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Co-operation.

As such, farmers have to buy seeds from the black market due to the delay in arrival of seeds from farmers thanks to the non-fixation of seed prices, he said.

It has said the Gujarat State Seeds Corporation Ltd (GSSCL) should expedite the fixation of seed prices to prevent exploitation of farmers at the hands of private operators.

The Sangh has now asked Sanghani to look into the matter and prevent the exploitation of farmers.

Patel added that private players pass off seeds as research variety which they actually lift from the research modules at the agricultural university.

As these seeds are straightaway lifted from the research wings of the university, traders charge fancy prices for these seeds, he said.

Elsewhere, Corporation officials said that the seed procurement prices fixed by them are the highest in the state. “The only thing is that the prices are fixed as per the period of procurement. For example, price for seed A for a particular month is normally different for another time period,” said a senior official of the Corporation.

... contd.