'Poor' seed supply led to peas crop 'failure': Growers

After cotton farmers complained of "spurious" insecticides, now peas growers in Punjab have alleged that their crop "failed" to ripen due to "poor" quality of seeds supplied by the state agriculture department.
Peas growers, mainly from Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar, with the support of farmers' outfit Kirti Kisan Union, have even threatened to launch an agitation if they are not adequately compensated.
Peas, which is a 60-65 days crop, is mainly grown after maize in September. It provides an additional source of income to growers and is generally harvested before wheat sowing.
Farmers complained that the peas crop failed to get ripened during the scheduled timeframe, delaying wheat sowing.

"Peas crop is generally ready within 60-65 days. But this season we saw the crop was not ready for harvesting in the given timeframe.
"It was not bearing fruit despite spending more on buying seed this time," said Harmesh Dhesi, a peas grower at Alipur village in Hoshiarpur district.

"There is a problem in AP-3 seed which was given by the agriculture department to growers at subsidised rates," Dhesi alleged, saying that he was not the only farmer facing this problem.
"Similar problem is being faced by peas growers in Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar areas," he added.
Growers, who have small landholdings, have even uprooted peas crop in order to facilitate wheat sowing.

"What is the option left with the farmers now? They cannot wait too long. That is why they have started uprooting the crop. If they wait, then wheat sowing will be delayed and ultimately, rabi crop's yield will get affected," said Kirti Kisan Union President Hardev Singh Sandhu.
Earlier, it was cotton growers who had charged the state government with supplying "spurious" insecticides which failed to check the attack of pest whitefly that caused extensive damage to the crop in the state.
"We will launch an agitation against the government to demand adequate compensation for peas growers whose crop has failed," said Sandhu.

Peas are grown over 22,000 hectares of land in Punjab, comprising districts such as Hoshiarpur, Amaritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Nawanshahar.
With a yield of 10,295 kg per hectare, its annual output is estimated at 2.28 lakh metric tonnes.
This season, peas are fetching about Rs 40 per kg to farmers as against Rs 25 per kg last season.