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Thursday April 25, 2024

Poisonous seeds

By our correspondents
December 02, 2015
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has recently announced the Insaf Food Security Programme through which free wheat seeds will be distributed amongst farmers. A similar programme is ongoing in Punjab as well. These are positive steps for the neglected agriculture sector and the poor farmers who can barely afford the high agricultural costs of inputs.
However, the seeds distributed in these programmes are poisonous, thus making them hazardous for consumption by both humans and animals. The death of certain precious wildlife species after having eaten these seeds has already been reported in areas in KP. The government must ensure that the crop obtained from these seeds is not hazardous for the health of humans or animals.
M Sayyad Alam Khan
Peshawar