HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the federal secretary of the National Food Security & Research (NFS&R), director general of the Federal Seed Certification & Registration (FSC&R), Sindh agriculture secretary agriculture, director general of the agriculture extension and four divisional directors of the agriculture department for Jan 27 on a constitutional petition.

The petition was filed by Syed Mir Mohammad Shah, a grower, through Advocate Ayatullah Khowaja praying the court to direct the respondent officers to check sale of unapproved seed varieties in Sindh.

He submitted in court that the respondents were supposed to ensure enforcement of the Seed Act 1976, that governed the mechanism for the sale, use and stocking of approved seed. The Act was amended in 2015 and the clause K of the act’s Section-6 inserted which says that the agro-economic value of different varieties of seed regarding regional suitability for registration is to be determined.

The petitioner stated that inclusion of this clause was very specific. He said different companies were selling their seeds without suitability and adaptability of such seeds in other provinces considering the fact that climate of one province varied from other province. He said that such practice was causing losses to growers and also affecting productivity.

He said that the respondents under the amended Act were required to visit dealers and shopkeepers connected with the business of seeds in order to see that they were selling only approved seeds. He claimed that despite directives, the respondents failed to check sale of unapproved seeds to growers. He said that the respondents were not abiding by the Act.

He also claimed that different companies of other provinces were selling seeds in Sindh without approval under this Act. He said that seeds of those companies were not suitable to the climate of Sindh and dealers were purchasing and selling unapproved varieties without any check by the FSC&R. He said that these seeds did not give required productivity.

The petitioner stated that if any company intended to sell its seeds in Sindh, it was legally bound to get the seeds inspected through the provincial FSC&R department. He said that a list of approved seeds had already been published by the Sindh Seed Council. For the last one decade, sale of unapproved seeds continued in Sindh.

He said that now when the Rabi season had begun, sale of unapproved wheat crop seed continued in different divisions of Sindh although the matter was brought to the notice of respondent officers. He said that Kharif season would begin in March next year and unapproved cotton crop seed would be sold. He said that cotton was an important crop and generated revenue for growers.

The petitioner said that due to violation of the Act, growers were sustaining heavy losses and it was also affecting the national economy and food requirement of the country.

He prayed the court to direct the respondents to ensure that no unapproved seed varieties were transported, sold and stocked in Sindh. He urged the court to direct the respondents to visit markets in order to check stocking and sale of unapproved varieties of seeds.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2021