Ganderbal, Oct 12: The farmers of this district today alleged that the seeds provided by the Agriculture Department in April had caused disease to their paddy. The farmers demanded compensation for the “production loss”.
 According to the farmers, the Agriculture Department provided them with “special seeds” in April. The farmers said even as the department had promised better yield, “we are seeing almost a crop failure.”
 The farmers from different villages in Kangan, Lar and Ganderbal tehsils of the district alleged that the seeds had not yielded any crops so far. “We have incurred huge losses due to crop failure,” they said.
 “After we got the seeds from the department, we followed the advice of the officials in letter and spirit. But to our utter surprise there is no crop in our fields even as the harvesting season is almost over,” rued Muhammad Subhan.
  “We are mostly dependent on the agriculture. Since we have suffered without any fault on our side, we need to be compensated,” said a farmer from Lar.
 Acknowledging that some villages in the district had faced crop failure, Director, Agriculture Department, Kashmir, Farooq Ahmad Lone said the department had sent a team of experts to the affected areas to verify the cause of the loss.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 IST