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Ban on Pesticides

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August 04, 2020

Why in news?

The Centre has issued a draft order banning the manufacture and sale of pesticides on grounds of the grave risk they pose to humans and animals.

What pesticides would be banned?

  • The order may ban 27 widely-used pesticides.
  • This would include 12 insecticides, 8 fungicides and 7 herbicides.
  • A large number of countries have already banned these pesticides and, experts say India should too.

How much pesticide is used in Punjab?

  • Punjab has just 1.53% of the country’s area.
  • But, its pesticide usage stood at 9.2% of the country in 2018-19 and over 8% in 2019-20.
  • In Punjab, chemical pesticide consumption is said to be decreasing, it is still continuous and excessive.
  • It stands after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in pesticide usage, but both states have a 6-times larger area as compared to Punjab.
  • Punjab has started using bio pesticides and its usage has increased from 136 MT in 2014-15 to 286 MT in 2019-20.
  • There is still a wide variety of pesticides available to farmers for various uses.
  • Punjab tops the country in terms of per hectare usage of fertilisers.

On which crops are these 27 pesticides mainly used?

  • These pesticides are used on almost all crops - rice, wheat, cotton, oilseeds, various vegetables, fruit etc.
  • Punjab can do away with these pesticides, though there are no other alternatives available at present for around 9 of the 27 pesticides.

What are the alternatives available to farmers?

  • There are three types of alternatives,
  1. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques, which are using cost-effective mechanical methods,
  2. Bio-pesticides, and
  3. Molecular target-specific low toxicity pesticides, usage of which is extremely low, and which are a little more expensive.
  • Neem-based biopesticides, which are environment-friendly, is very effective cost-wise and yield-wise.
  • It’s bitter taste keeps pests away from plants.
  • Moreover, the right kind of seeds and precise irrigation can help farmers keep the pests away.
  • Both PAU and Punjab agriculture department have been encouraging IPM extensively.

Which methods are used to control pests under IPM?

  • Under IPM, simple hand-picking, light traps, pheromone traps, sticky traps, glue boards etc. are used to control pests.
  • IPM aims to protect soil and the environment from poisonous elements
  • Light trap - Electric bulb is switched on during night time for an hour close to the fields.
  • The pests get attracted to the light in the night and then lights are switched it off.
  • All the attracted pests fall into the diesel/petrol mixed water and get killed.
  • Pheromone traps - They are meant for mating disruption, for suppression of pest population, and mass trapping.
  • Such traps slowly release synthetic attractants which help in the detection of a single species of insect in the fields.
  • Seed shelters - Farmers attract birds by installing seed shelters in the fields and such birds consume the harmful insects in fields.
  • IPM, heavy reliance needs to be placed upon ‘monitoring and surveillance’ of the crops and fields.

How does regular monitoring & surveillance help against pest attacks?

  • It can make farmers aware of the presence of pests and insects in the field at an early stage.
  • This will help them arrest the problem before it crosses the Economic Threshold Level (ETL) of the presence of these pests.
  • Punjab had seen the lowest cotton productivity in 2015 when whitefly had attacked the cotton crop on a large area.
  • But there is a 30% decrease usage of pesticides in the cotton crop from 2016 to date.
  • There is an increase in its productivity to 756 kg lint per hectare in 2016, a year after the devastating loss of the cotton crop, and 800 kg in 2019.

How else is less usage of pesticides beneficial?

  • Instead of spraying herbicides to clear weeds, farmers can hire manual labour to remove it.
  • This will save their fields from chemical sprays.
  • Also, the money spent on buying harmful pesticides can be diverted towards paying the labour engaged in handpicking such weeds.
  • Farmers use herbicides to clean weeds from their fields and the area around the fields to keep pests away.

 

Source: Indian Express

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