| Let
Us Spray?
Pesticides are
killing exports, degrading land and, by the way, destroying people
RAMESH MENON
Posted online: Sunday, September 05, 2004 at 0000 hours IST
Large shipments of grapes from Maharashtra
were recently returned to India as they were found to have pesticide
residues much above the permissible limits. After suffering a huge
financial loss, grape farmers are now adopting organic farming.
Already, tea gardens in Darjeeling are
turning organic as countries like Germany are boycotting Indian tea that
contains any traces of pesticides.
Yes, some farmers in some pockets in India
have switched to organic farming considering its benefits and eyeing the
lucrative export market. However, organic farming is yet to catch up in a
big way in India. The pro-pesticide policy of the government and economics
of produce have kept the balance tilted in favour of pesticides.
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Toxic Trouble
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A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research on milk samples from
2,205 cows and buffaloes found that 85 per cent of the samples had
pesticide above the acceptable level. As cows and buffaloes chew on
agriculture waste, they end up consuming pesticide residues, a result
of excessive use of pesticides.
Indian women have
been found to have unacceptable amounts of pesticide residues in their
breast milk. Studies on lactating mothers in both Delhi and Punjab
have come out with shocking results.
At risk are
not only the present generations, but future ones as well, as genetic
mutations can play havoc. Already, there are danger signals. Areas
like Warangal in Andhra Pradesh and Bhatinda in Punjab, which are
among the highest users of pesticide in India, are seeing an uneasy
rise in infertility clinics as young couples struggle with the reality
of being unable to have children.
Areas like
Bhatinda and Warangal are also witnessing an alarming increase in
cancer. Pesticides enhance the risks of cancer by acting as
carcinogens and by suppressing the immune system that has the ability
to destroy the process of tumour creation in the body.
Pesticides
attack the human immune system at different points. It could result in
numerous life threatening diseases like cancer, respiratory aliments,
skin diseases, kidney failure, impotence and ulcers.
Forty
pesticides banned in most parts of the world due to its frightening
after effects on public health are easily available in India. There
are over 145 pesticides registered in India, but tolerance limits for
only 50 are available.
A study by
Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society found that
popular brands of wheat flour contained Lindane, a dangerous
pesticides.
There is
another side to the excessive use of pesticide. While the pests are
becoming more and more immune, the pesticides end up killing the
natural predators who prey on worms. |
Developed countries are lowering the
maximum permissible limits of pesticide residue. Once WTO specifications
of food grade quality come in, exports from India will collapse if such
excessive amounts of pesticide are used.
Western countries are now effectively
building public opinion against Indian agricultural produce, including
goods like cotton textiles, talking of how it is saturated with poisonous
chemicals.
One might remember that the Indian carpet
industry was forced to relook at employing child labour as exporters
insisted on carpets that did not involve child labour. Soon, Indian
cotton, vegetables, fruits and processed fruit that have pesticide traces
in it will be rejected.
Many farmers, driven by economic
considerations, are not ready to switch away from chemical farming which
gives them higher yields.
Experts opine that the switch-over to
organic farming hits the crop yield only for the first couple of years.
The yield picks up once the land starts regenerating with natural manure
and use of bio-pesticides.
Farmers are now also moving back to the
time-tested style of farming. Many are sticking in tree branches into the
soil in the middle of their field so that birds could come and perch on
them, sight the insects and eat them.
They are also using light traps to attract
insects which are then allowed to fall into a bowl filled with a mixture
of water and kerosene kept below the light.
Maybe, market forces will force us to move
towards a healthier future.
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Dead Punjabi Soil
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Harkishanpura, a village in Bhatinda
district of Punjab, is up for sale. But no one wants land there.
Reason: the land has been degraded and the water poisoned with
chemicals by excessive use of pesticides. Punjab chief minister Capt.
Amrinder Singh personally inspected the area, but nothing came of it.
Harkishanpura is not the only area to have met that fate. In most
parts of Bhatinda, the groundwater has an excess of chlorides that
have leeched in with excessive pesticide use. Forget about human
consumption, water in many villages has been declared unfit even for
agriculture. Yet villagers drink it every day. They have no choice.
The fate is much the same in Warangal and many other parts of India.
If excessive use of pesticides continues, Punjab will be devastated in
another 20 years, warns activist Umendra Dutt. His organisation, Kheti
Virasat, is desperately trying to promote organic farming in the
state.
Not that the farmers are unaware of the dangers posed by inorganic
farming and excessive use of pesticides. Many farmers know. In fact, a
part of their crop is specially grown organically so that their
families could consume pesticide-free food. A farmer in Patiala, who
farms on 100 acres of land, has set aside two acres for organic
farming, the produce from which will be enough for his family.
Says Asheesh Tayal of Greenpeace in New Delhi: I have not met one
farmer who does not agree that pesticides have harmed their health. It
will take time for them to accept that it is safer to earn less and
live a healthy life.
Ravi Aggarwal, who runs Toxics Link in New Delhi that is battling
pesticide use, says: All government policies are pro-pesticides. It
is the pesticide industry that is today the greatest deterrent to
healthy farming. The extremely rich and powerful lobby of the
pesticide industry controls government policies.
Adds Dr Ashutosh Halder of the department of reproductive biology at
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi: There is
nothing called a safe pesticide. All of them are harmful. We need to
demand that studies be done on how it affects health. One way out is
to protect natural predators who would eat the pests. We need to
introduce integrated pest management so that excessive use of
pesticides is ruled out. |
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