B’onion farmers taken for a ride

Shirley Wijesinghe

*Incur Rs 25 m loss

*Police inquiry launched

Lands and Land Development Minister Janaka Bandara Tennekoon has instructed Dambulla Superintendent of Police to conduct an inquiry into an incident in which a company imported substandard seeds to be sold to B’onion farmers in Dambulla.

The racket came to light after it was found that after planting the seeds at the nursery stage, instead of a small onion bulb, what eventually emerged was a large mature onion like yam which had to be disposed of due to rotting. Over 700 farmer families have suffered a severe loss as a result.

Farmers who purchased B’ onion seeds from this well-known vegetable seed company in Colombo had realized too late that what the seeds yielded was anything but B’onions.

Dambulla B’Onion Cultivators’ Association Convenor M.M.U. Madigasekera told the Daily News that most onion farmers in the Dambulla area had depended on this imported Indian variety due to their low price which is around Rs 1,700 per kilogram. Local onion seeds are very reliable but it has to be purchased for Rs 10,000 per kilogram.

Madigasekera said about 13,000 kilograms of B’onion seeds had been sold to the Dambulla farmers by the Company who are the authorized dealers.

He said the company continued to give frivolous reasons hoping that the B’onion farmers’ agitation would end soon. “Ultimately the poor farmers who purchased these seeds believing them to be quality seeds were the victims,” he said.

The estimated total loss related to purchasing of these seeds and for costs incurred for preparation of the nurseries and other work is over Rs 25 million.

Meanwhile, according to Madigasekera the Company says it has sent seed samples to the Maha Illuppalama Agriculture Research Institution for testing.

An official of the seed importing company who wished to remain anonymous told the Daily News that the onion seeds in question had been imported to Sri Lanka for the last five to six years and they had not received any complaints. The seed consignment was certified by the National Quarantine Centre too.

This problem is not related to the quality of seeds, but most probably the farmers had followed the wrong procedure, he said.

Any item imported for planting is required to submit three main certificates. They are the International Seed Testing Association’s Certificate, Plant Health Certificate and Certificate of origin.

No additional test will be done by the National Quarantine Centre if these certificates are in order, an official of the National Quarantine Centre told the Daily News.