Amaravati: In a surprising development, the agriculture department, which is the nodal agency tasked with curbing illegal activities of seed and fertilizer dealers, is itself found to be circulating fake bio-fertilizers to farmers.The nexus between field officials of the agriculture department and fraudulent dealers has resulted in procurement of huge quantities of bio-fertilizers from several unlicensed traders in the state. The issue of the agriculture department procuring the fake fertilizer from a fraudulent dealer came to light during a surprise raid carried out by the vigilance and enforcement department on a manufacturing unit in Guntur last week.The agriculture department is purchasing stocks through its trade arm Agros Corporation and distributing the same to farmers at highly subsidized prices. Cashing in on the growing demand for bio-fertilizers among the farmers to their advantage, the fraudulent dealers are said to be making a killing from the sale of bogus bio-fertilizers. Vigilance sleuths seized nearly 100 tonnes of stock from unlicensed traders found supplying stocks to Agros.Speculation is rife that at least three legislators of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are directly involved in the sale of high quantities of spurious bio-fertilizers. Sources said the legislators have set up their own firms and are making money hand over fist by selling untested bio-fertilizers to farmers through the agriculture department.Interestingly, the agriculture department is alleged to have turned a blind eye to the unethical and illegal practices of the bio-fertilizer manufacturers citing the rules of the Fertilizer Control Order of 1985. With a view to promote the manufacturing and consumption of bio-products, the Centre had kept the bio-fertilizers and pesticides out of the ambit of the Act. Taking advantage of the relaxation, the manufacturers and dealers are making a killing as there is no regulation on their activities.Sensing trouble, the Centre recently amended the Act and brought quality inspection of bio-fertilizers too under the agriculture department’s purview. However, the agriculture department did not initiate any action either to inspect or to prevent the circulation of the fake and spurious bio-fertilizers in the state.“We have received the amended guidelines of the Fertilizer Control Act recently and we will start inspecting the bio-fertilizer units shortly,” confirmed M Vijaya Bharathi, a senior official of the agriculture department.Sources said the agriculture department officials have deliberately ignored the activities of the illegal traders as they were getting commissions from them. “It is a jolt to the state government’s attempts to convert the entire cultivation into the zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) mode as the farmers might quit the natural farming practice if they did not get expected results from the usage of bio-fertilizers,” said Y Venkateswara Rao, founder of Raithu Nestham, an NGO working on organic farming practices.

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