Minister for Agriculture Production, Javed Ahmad Dar, today informed the House that the consignments of fertilizers are allowed to move to Valley only after the samples test as standard.

The Minister was replying to a question raised by Hilal Akbar Lone in the Legislative Assembly.

He informed the House that there is an established mechanism for sampling of the products batch-wise in respect of Fertilizers at Udhampur Rack, being tested from the quality Control Lab at Jammu and the consignments are allowed to move to Valley only after the samples test as standard. He said that there is one check point at Lower Munda where the documents of consignments are checked and the source is verified. He added that the sale is allowed only after the samples test as standard.

In addition, the samples are being taken at random from stocks of the wholesalers and retailers, which too are tested and in case the samples test as below standard, prosecution is launched against the wholesalers/ dealers/retailers, he added.

The Minister said that a similar procedure is being adopted in respect of the pesticides for proper testing before its sale to the farmers. He said that the Agriculture Production Department has an Enforcement Directorate at UT level and Law Enforcement Agencies at District level, which are vigilant to any complaints regarding substandard pesticides and fertilizers.

Sharing the details, the Minister said that 3010 and 1065 samples of pesticides and fertilizers respectively have been collected for testing during 2024-25 accordingly.

Bashir Ahmad Veeri raised the supplementary to the question.