Odishatv Bureau
Bhubaneswar: After hit hard by the untimely rain, the farmers now are facing another problem with alleged misappropriation in the pulse kit supplied by the government.

While many farmers do not get the kit, poor quality of the pesticides and fertilizers in the kit have raised many eye brows.

“I had sprayed some fertilizers on the seeds but only half of it grew. Even the sunflower plant doesn’t grow properly due to the poor quality fertilizers”, said Nishakar Behera, a farmer of Basudevpur.

For better cultivation of pulse crop, the government under National Agriculture Development Programme is providing the pulse kit that contains three types of fertilizers and two types of pesticides. A single packet that worth Rs 630 can be used in half a acre land.

It has been planned to cultivate pulse crops in about 15 thousand acres of land in the state. As per the agriculture department, the government aims to distribute around 3 lakhs pulse kit free of cost of which 2 lakh 40 thousands have already been distributed.

However,it has come to the fore that while many districts are yet to receive the kits, lot of farmers are still waiting for Rabi crop assistance.

“We were expecting some help from the government for Rabi crop. We only hear about the kits in TV news but actually do not know what it is as no officer has informed us regarding this”, said Chaitanya Nayak, a farmer in Bolangir.

Another farmer in Berhampur also echoed the same saying that “though summer is approaching fast, they are yet have any assistance from the government”. Meanwhile the agriculture department has denied the charges of irregularity and assured of action if such complaints are found.

“As far as we are concerned, no specific complaints on the quality are there, but if certain complains will be there on quality, we will test the kits and definitely take action”, said R. S. Gopalan, Director, Department of Agriculture.

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