Farmers lodge over 50,000 complaints of soybean seed failure, FIRs filed against 23 companies

State agriculture officials said there were three major reasons behind germination failure, with inferior quality of seeds being one. Being a non-hybrid variant, farmers can use soybean seeds from their fields to take the next crop. Seed companies treat these seeds and undertake germination tests before selling them as seeds for the next season.

Heavy rain during last year’s harvest took a toll on seed quality, in turn affecting the availability of quality seeds for this season. Insufficient soil moisture during sowing and deep sowing of seeds are also being attributed for germination failure.

Data from the agriculture department shows that to date, it has received close to 50,000 complaints from farmers with regard to seed failure. As many as 37,000 complaints have been received from Latur, Beed, Osmanabad, Parbhani and Hingoli alone, while 7,000 complaints have come from Aurangabad district. Similarly, Amravati and other districts of Vidarbha have also reported some complaints.

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has lodged a sou motu PIL to probe the matter. The two-judge bench of Justice T V Nalawade and Justice Shrikant J Kulkarni has come rapped the state government and the agriculture department over their lax attitude. The judges have even asked the joint director, agriculture, Aurangabad division, to attend the hearing, failing which he will be arrested. Farmers have also been asked to lodge complaints under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code against companies whose seeds have failed to germinate