The real cost is not the pack
A fake pack costs you the price of the product, then the spray, then the labour, and then the crop damage the pest went on to do while you believed you had treated it. The pack is the cheapest part of the loss.
Six checks
1. The seal. Look at the cap and the neck. A factory seal is even and unbroken. If it looks re-glued, re-shrunk or slightly off-centre, put it down.
2. The registration number. Every legitimate product carries a CIB&RC registration number on the label. No number, no purchase — no exceptions.
3. Print quality. Genuine labels are printed, not photocopied. Look at the small text and the logo edges. Fakes are usually let down by fuzzy fine print and slightly wrong colours.
4. Batch number and date. Both should be clearly and permanently marked, not stickered on and not smudged. Check the expiry in front of the dealer.
5. The price. A price well below the market is not a bargain, it is a warning. Nobody sells genuine technical below cost.
6. The bill. Insist on a proper bill with the batch number written on it. A seller unwilling to give one is telling you something.
Buy where there is something to lose
A licensed dealer with a board, a licence on the wall and a business to protect has a reason to sell you the real thing. Someone selling from the back of a vehicle at the weekly market has none.
This is the honest argument for buying from the Hello Kissan counter or any other licensed retailer: not that we are cheaper, but that there is somebody to go back to.
If you suspect a fake
Do not spray it. Keep the pack, the bill and the batch number. Photograph all three. Report it to the dealer you bought it from and to the district agriculture officer. With the batch number, a fake can be traced; without it, it cannot.
Genuine product used wrongly fails too. Read the label before use.
