HASSAN: A committee comprising senior officials from departments of Agriculture and Horticulture, and Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) met here on Friday and fixed the maximum price for potato seeds at Rs. 1,100 a quintal, Deputy Commissioner K.H. Ashwathanarayana Gowda has said.

Addressing presspersons on Friday, he said traders from Punjab who had stocked potato seeds in four cold storage plants on the outskirts of Hassan refused to market it for the price fixed by the committee and stuck to their price of Rs. 1,250. Farmers had agreed to the price fixed by the committee, he added. With the fixation of price, trading in seeds had resumed and traders had been asked to issue receipts to farmers for the purchases made.

Official to monitor

A senior official from the Department of Weights and Measures would monitor the equipment used by traders at regular intervals and officials of departments of Agriculture and Horticulture would verify the quality of seeds, he said.

Stock

While there was a demand for 45,000 tonnes of seeds, traders, who had stocked about 25,000 tonnes in cold storage plants, were planning to indent for another 15,000 tonnes.

The Department of Horticulture was anticipating potato cultivation in 45,000 hectares in the district, he said.

Meanwhile, the taluk unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken objection to the price fixed by the committee and urged farmers against purchasing seeds for that price.

In a press release issued here on Friday, president of the unit Deepak Rangaswamy said that traders had stored a large quantity of seeds in cold storage plants in the district and they could sell the seeds for Rs. 800 a quintal.

However, they wanted to exploit the farmers who were in a hurry to take up sowing, he added.

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