New Delhi, January 21
India has rubbished Pakistan’s move to block the transit of Indian wheat to Afghanistan from its territory on the grounds that the foodgrain was infested with fungus and diseases.
The political leadership and the scientific community joined hands to expose Pakistan’s ploy to generate a fresh
controversy. Pakistan Agriculture Ministry officials have been spreading word that the Indian wheat was infested with seed-borne fungus like striga and diseases like Karnal Bunt.
The Union Food Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, who is at Thiruvananthapuram in
Kerala, termed Pakistan’s action as “unfortunate, inhuman and politically motivated”.
“The Pakistan charge is incorrect. Our wheat is free from all diseases,” Mr Shanta Kumar said, reacting to the Pakistan charge that the Indian wheat to be transported to Afghanistan under the World Food Programme
(WFP) was contaminated. No country to where the Indian wheat was being exported had ever complained about quality. India ranked seventh among 27 wheat producing nations in the world, he said.
Official sources here said the reported claim by Pakistan that the wheat was infested with disease like Karnal Bunt was “meaningless” as it affected during the growing stage.
According to the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine, Karnal Bunt has minimal effect on quality and yield of wheat. The disease is checked by the use of clean seed treated with fungicides and appropriate practices. This clearly shows that the disease is at the seed stage. Now India did not export seeds to Afghanistan, a source pointed.
