Pesticide poisoning a cause for concern

SS Chahal

THE emergence of new and virulent pests and pathogens in intensive agriculture enhanced the use of pesticides as a quick and effective control measure. Proponents of the Green Revolution focused on maximising yield to combat hunger, comparing pesticides with medicines used for the sick people. Till long after the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in the 1960s, people were generally not aware of the toxicity and harmful effects of pesticides. These are still considered as the most reliable and potential arsenal against pests threatening crops. Resultantly, the domestic pesticide market has grown to an estimated Rs 20,000 crore. In the fiscal year 2019, India produced 2,17,000 metric tonnes of pesticides. The Indian pesticide market was worth Rs 19,700 crore in 2018. Growing at 8.1 per cent during 2019-24, it is expected to reach a value of Rs 31,600 crore by 2024.

The registration, import, manufacturing, sale, transport, distribution and use of pesticides are regulated by the Insecticide Act, 1968, and Insecticide Rules, 1971. The agriculture departments of states are involved in enforcing the Act by issuing manufacturing licences, environmental clearance and monitoring the quality of products. Because of loopholes in the regulatory mechanism and low level of awareness among the end users, the business of fake pesticides has flourished, flooding the market with spurious and misbranded products. The fake pesticide industry, which was estimated at Rs 1,200 crore in 2008-09 by the Agricultural Policy Group, became worth Rs 3,200 crore in 2013 and is growing at 20 per cent per year, according to the study report released by FICCI and Tata Strategic Management Group in 2015. More than one-third of the pesticides produced by the domestic industry are spurious. Unlike legal products, they could contain toxic compounds since they have never been tested for human health. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Karnataka and Punjab are the worst-affected states in the country. The problem has been identified as one of the major concerns facing Indian agriculture in the 21st century by PK Chakrabarty, former Assistant Director General (Plant Protection), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Spurious and counterfeit pesticides often become a reason for crop failure, health hazards due to unknown toxic impurities and untested residues, environmental contamination, loss of confidence in measures for pest control in agriculture as well as an obstacle to the export of agricultural commodities. The organised sector suffers revenue loss. Losses in the farm yield ultimately add to the prevailing agrarian crisis. Invariably, fake pesticides prove ineffective in controlling the pests being targeted, forcing anxious farmers to use indiscriminate spraying with enhanced dosage at decreased time intervals. It adds to the cost of cultivation without reducing the yield loss. There are numerous such cases of repeated occurrence like the failure of apple, cotton and rice crops in the recent past. A report in Down To Earth in 2017 brought to light a series of farmers’ suicide in Odisha over crop failure due to a pest attack and the death of about 30 farmers due to inhalation of spurious pesticides in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra while spraying on cotton. The Lok Sabha was informed that 233 deaths took place due to pesticide poisoning between 2015 and 2018 in Punjab. The use of wrong pesticides adds to the miseries of poor farmers who suffer from low returns from their agriculture produce. No compensation can fill the gap created by the loss of human life.

Unfortunately, the ill effects of the application of spurious pesticide come to the fore long after their use in the field. Though provisions are essential in the Insecticide Act for awarding penalties to the sources producing fake pesticides and to compensate farmers, no regulation can be foolproof to ascertain and ensure the level of damage in a complex biological system influenced by a number of physiological and environmental factors. It allows legal practitioners to find escape routes to evade penalties for defaulters and compensation to the affected farmers, for whom it becomes an uphill task to support their cases with evidence. Such cases usually meet the same fate as those under crop insurance schemes.

A study carried out by PI Devi and her colleagues at Kerala Agricultural University ascertained that there is monopoly of the private sector in managing 90 per cent of the retail trade across the country, leading to unregulated sale guided by the profit motive alone. Also, it has been revealed that at least 47 per cent of the farmers get guidance from pesticide sellers. Most farmers, being illiterate and ignorant, do not enquire about the quality, correctness, specific chemical brands and other minute details while buying a pesticide. Normally, there is neither any prescription nor receipt, which disqualifies the farmers from filing a claim for any loss due to the use of substandard pesticides. Farmer producer companies, cooperatives and extension workers can help create awareness among farmers. It will enable them to exercise their rights.

The Anupam Verma Committee, in 2016, recommended a ban on 13 ‘extremely hazardous’ and phasing out of six ‘moderately hazardous’ pesticides by 2020. It also asked for a review of 27 pesticides in 2018 which are barred/restricted for use in agriculture in other countries. However, total compliance of the recommendations is nowhere to be seen. The sale of chemically adulterated bio-pesticides and chemical pesticides in the name of bio-pesticides, too, is a common malpractice by unscrupulous traders. “Of the 23 randomly collected bio-pesticide samples analysed by an NABL-accredited government laboratory, the Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology, Gurugram, four were found substandard and nine failed the test as they contained chemicals,” in December 2018, according to Bharatiya Krishak Samaj president Krishna Bir Chaudhary. Monitoring and surveillance are central to detect manufacturing, storage and appearance of fake and banned pesticides in the market, for which it is important to have specialists with multidisciplinary knowledge. Also, there is a need to improve coordinated functioning of central and state-level functionaries of enforcement teams. A judicial framework should also deal quickly and strictly with the defaulters, awarding exemplary punishment.

Illegal manufacturers misuse technology and produce packaging exactly similar or even better than that of the genuine products. There is a need to detect it through similar or superior technology. The use of digital tools like securing hologram seals and labels, light-sensitive ink designs, low-cost transport tags integrated with track-and-trace technologies like individualised bar and QR codes etc. can help in the identification of genuine or fake pesticides at the time of purchase. It needs constant efforts to create awareness of such forensic security features among farmers and government officials. It should be mandatory to link it with the database of the government’s Kisan Call Centre, enabling verification through phone calls, SMS and online procedures by the farmers about batch number, expiry date and originality of the product they are getting in the market.

Pesticides are sprayed on crops usually by untrained and illiterate farm labour without following prescriptions, instructions and precautions, using faulty nozzles and approximated many times higher dosages. It causes more harm than good to the crops and also becomes a cause for environment and soil pollution. It leads to indiscriminate use of pesticides, which is rampant in our country. It should strictly be prohibited. Only trained and accredited workers should be allowed for on-farm application of pesticides. Recently, the Central Government has clarified that pesticide spraying using drone technology in Telangana was illegal because the drift can take the range of application to high levels with no control on weather conditions. Presently, there are no provisions on spray technologies, which need to be clearly prescribed under the new Bill pending for approval of Parliament. In line with the Insecticide Act, each state should establish its pesticide policy which is of paramount importance for food security, food safety, environmental purity and human health.

Working in Copenhagen (Denmark), I observed rose plants severely infected with powdery mildew in the garden of the Institute of Seed Pathology. I suggested that only one spray application of dinocarp could cure it. But they preferred to uproot and destroy such plants rather than saving them by spraying fungicide, as it is not the practice there. This is a distant dream for our country.

The author is former Vice Chancellor of Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur.