Tarigami seeks crackdown on substandard pesticides across Kashmir

Srinagar, Jul 4: CPI(M) leader and MLA Kulgam, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, has urged the government to act against the sale of substandard pesticides in Kashmir and to tighten checking at Qazigund for all pesticides, fertilisers and hybrid plants entering the valley from outside.
Tarigami said fruit drop was reported last month in Sugu, Sugu Handhama and Kachdoora villages of Shopian, where growers alleged apples fell prematurely from trees within days of spraying a fungicide containing Mancozeb. He added that complaints spread from the initial villages to adjoining areas, and the Enforcement Wing has since approached the District Court Shopian seeking sanction for prosecution against two dealers under the Insecticides Act, 1968.
He said the Shopian incident is not an isolated one. He added that enforcement drives against spurious pesticide and fertiliser dealers have been carried out in the past across Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag, Budgam and Srinagar districts as well, and that a 2025 sampling exercise found the overwhelming majority of non-standard samples traced to Kashmir division rather than Jammu.
He also cited the government’s own enforcement data. He said 149 prosecutions have been registered over spurious pesticides and 110 over fertiliser samples across Jammu and Kashmir, with Rs 1.31 lakh recovered as fines, and added that the scale of these numbers points to a problem spread across the valley rather than confined to one district.
Tarigami said the check post at Lower Munda, Qazigund, was set up to intercept unauthorised movement of agricultural inputs into the valley, and plant material brought from outside is required to undergo quarantine at Post Entry Quarantine facilities for up to two years before release. He added that this system needs to be enforced without gaps, particularly during peak spraying season, when demand pressure increases the risk of diversion and sale of unverified stock.
He said the Agriculture and Horticulture departments should step up sampling at the district level and make full use of the pesticide testing laboratories at Kulgam, Srinagar, Jammu and Baramulla, and the fertiliser testing laboratories at Jammu and Srinagar, so that affected growers across Kashmir get compensation and accountability without delay. (KNS)