Dear Editor,

I HOPE this letter can reach the eyes the Government, Minister of Agriculture and the Chairman and board of Directors of GRDB.

Farmers continue to be faced with grave problems as a result of the seed-paddy purchased from the GRDB, Burma Rice Research Station over the past year. On copious occasions several hundreds of bags seed-paddy purchased from the GRDB, Burma Rice Research Station does not germinate or if germinated, the percentage of germination was far below the requisite levels. When this happens the farmers suffer the losses or the board suffers the loss in revenue.

I was reliable informed that gross negligence and inefficiency in the management of seed production at GRDB, Burma Rice Research Station by the Burma Head, Dr. Mahindra Persaud is the main reasons for poor quality seed-paddy reaching the farmers. It is alleged that in the seed production SOP were not adhered to, resulting in either the seeds not harvested at the correct time from the fields, at the correct moisture content, or dried and stored properly, leading to damage of the embryo in the seed.

Further, the required labels on the bags to tell the quality of seed paddy and percentage of germination from the seed lot were totally absent. So farmers do not have an option, but to accept what was in the bag. Fortunately I had a close examination of the poor germinating seed paddy and saw evidence of large amount of shelled grains, broken grains, pieces of clay soil and discoloured grains present in the bags of seed-paddy sold as C1 and C11 grade.

On every occasion any issue that was raised by farmers about the poor quality of seed provided by the GRDB, Burma Rice Research Station, the Head, Dr. Mahindra would always concoct or fabricate stories with perfect excuses and hide his abysmal incompetence. The time has come for the Government, the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Noel Holder, and the Chairman and board of Directors of GRDB to get involved and seriously look into this present situation and stop taking these lame excuses as to why the seed-paddy quality provided to farmers are not up to standard from Burma Rice Research Station, since the board is spending large sums of money on seed-paddy production every year.

Regards

George Williams