The farmers of Cheunigaon of ward No. 9 under Rangamati Kaiboartya gaon panchayat in Golaghat district found on Friday that their paddy seedlings produced blighted paddy 10 days after planting.

As many as 15 farmers planted seedlings of special short-duration variety “Abhishek” in their fields for more production in about 25 bighas of croplands without any proper knowledge about cultivation of that variety.

They collected seeds from a farmer of a nearby area who had cultivated the variety in 2017 and had good production.

The area, with 90 per cent farmers, is flood-prone and the farmers generally use fields of others on lease for paddy cultivation on the agreement that they will give two quintals of paddy crop during harvest.

The incident was first noticed by Jadav Saikia and Nobin Bora when they went to inspect their paddy fields. They found that the saplings had two-three inches of blighted paddy. Later, they informed the matter to the village-level extension worker (VLEW), agriculture, Jadav Dutta, and urged him to inspect the fields.

They alleged that their plea was ignored.

Finally, the farmers used those plants as fodder for their cattle.

On getting information, the district agricultural officer (DAO), Golaghat, Nabin Bora along with agricultural development officer of Bongaon Udditya Saikia visited the spot and took stock of the situation.

Bora advised the farmers to either use chemical fertilisers or cultivate the field afresh by using the latest variety of seedlings that will be supplied by the district agricultural department under community seedlings management scheme.

However, the farmers were reluctant to cultivate afresh or use manures.

Bora told this correspondent that the seeds were of hylinked variety with short duration.

“The seeds were distributed among farmers of the flood-affected areas as a short-term variety at Gulung Temera in 2017, but not supplied by the department this year. This late variety should be planted within 21 days and harvesting period from sowing of the seed is 90 days. So they should have consulted the agricultural officials before using the seeds. The seedlings were planted only after 36 days.”

Bora said, “Due to lack of manpower, the awareness genertion among the farmers could not be done regularly. But before distributing a new variety there must be awareness generation.”

The DAO said out of 122 VLEW posts, only 22 are filled up in the district where most of them are engaged in NRC duty.

“We have not seen any agricultural department official in the area since last five years,” a farmer said.

“We urge the government to compensate us for our loss,” Jadav Saikia, a farmer, said.