Dr Ramakrishna Mule, Director, Agriculture Quality Control has issued a circular to all Zilla Parishads to ask farmers to insist on a receipt while buying the seeds of Taiwanese papaya. Officials have been asked to trace the origin of the seeds and ban unauthorised sale. The move comes in the wake of complaints from farmers from several parts of the State that they got poor quality of seeds, which do not bear fruit. In some cases, the seeds were apparently mixed with similar looking local seeds. One such case was from Brahmangaon village in Baglan taluka of Nashik district.

The farmer, Yeshwant Pandurang Ahire, had bought six packets of seeds from a local vendor. He later found that out of 697 trees, 332 were male (bearing no fruit) and 365 female. He subsequently complained to the district agriculture officials who have been correspondingwith the retailer and the wholesaler.

Dr Mule told The Indian Express that there was no ban on the seeds as such and the Union Government granted permits to those importing the seeds. However, he pointed out that some people were smuggling the seeds in small quantities. It is suspected that the genuine seeds are sold after mixing them with other less-productive seeds locally available.

The agriculture development officer of the Nashik Zilla Parishad, T N Bhandare, said that over the past few years, farmers were preferring Taiwanese papaya seeds as the yield is more and there are no male trees. He said the high-breed seeds produced 200 to 300 fruits per tree within eight months. Though the fruit is less sweet in taste, it is preferred by urban consumers for its rich colour and density.

The local variety of papaya seeds produce male and female plants almost in equal numbers and hence farmers prefer the foreign variety as it is all female. The male plant just flowers but does not fruitify, while thefemale plant produces both. Hence, horticulture officials ask farmers to plant three trees at a time, instead of one, forming a triangle, so that when the sex of the plant is detected (usually after four months of sowing) the male plants can be uprooted.

Papaya is grown almost all over the State, with substantial pockets in Sangli, Konkan and Dhule. The officials of the zilla parishads have been asked to check shops of seed dealers and ensure that they sell genuine seeds. Officials have been asked to trace the origin of the seeds to prevent losses to farmers.