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Enquiry into substandard oilseed supply ordered

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board (POSDB) has initiated an enquiry into defective and contaminated supply of Canola oilseed by its regional office in Gujranwala and Lahore, Board officials told Fortuna on Monday.

Sources said that a grower in Lahore had approached the POSDB here saying that the oilseed of the Dunkle variety gave him growth in only about a third of the total cultivated area of 34 acres after incurring huge costs on fertilizer and other inputs.

The grower has urged authorities to conduct ground survey and also initiate an inquiry into provision of defective and contaminated seed through the Board outlets so that the responsible officials could be held to task.

Sources said the grower has demanded strict action against persons found responsible for this adulteration since such actions are detrimental to the national efforts for achieving self-sufficiency in oilseed production to save foreign exchange.

Col. Bashir, the grower, informed the ministry that he had obtained two bags of 25 kg each of Dunkle variety from the regional office of the Pakistan Oilseed Development Board in Gujranwala and one bag of 25 kg of the same variety from the Lahore office of the Board. However, he stated, apart from the seed being defective and contaminated one bag contained four kgs of dust.

The grower said that he planted Canola Dunkle variety over an area of 34 acres and informed that there was zero growth in 11 acres, 10 percent to 15 percent growth in 10 acres, and 50 percent to 70 percent in 13 acres.

He also informed the ministry that at the area where the growth reached 50 percent to 70 percent was highly contaminated with 'Desi Sarson' and other spurious plants. Fortuna