Unscheduled and excessive sprays of chemicals in agriculture fields — Time to act!

Anuj Kumar Verma 

Excessive use of urea and unscheduled sprays of chemical herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, weedicides, colours on fruits and vegetables is a serious issue posing a grave threat to nature and mankind. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion among stakeholders and different agencies involved in agriculture system. This is a fact that a good percentage of farmers in J&K, make excessive use of urea and chemical pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, weedicides over and above schedules issued by the SKUAST; Putting human health to great risk and also polluting our environment, soil and water bodies including groundwater badly. Such excessive sprays of toxic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, weedicides not only vitiate our environment but also affect badly the health of farmers, their families, their neighbours and people consuming the food grown in these fields.

As per a report published by P. Indra Devi, Judy Thomas and Rajesh K Raju, Scientists of Center of Excellence in Environmental Economics, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University with regard to pesticide consumption, Jammu and Kashmir has the highest per hector pesticides consumption i.e. 2.337 kg per hectare of the gross cropped area. As per a report published by Abdul Rashid Bhat, Mohd, Afzal Wani, A R Kirmani, T H Raina Deptt. of Neuro Surgery Sher -e- Kashmir Institute of Medical Science, Srinagar during the year 2010; for a total orchard area of 0.2 million Hectares, 7750 metric tons of fungicides and 3186 metric tons of insecticides right from March to November every year are sprayed/fogged. Due to excessive use of synthetic pesticides during the last four decades, sometimes frequency of unscheduled sprayers by farmers increasing up to 15-18, the prevalence of cancer disease along with brain tumor and other serious diseases has increased drastically in J&K.

Most of us may not be aware that hundreds of tonnes of Knol Khol produced in Marh and Akhnoor belt, during winter season, is dispatched to local as well as markets in Kashmir valley. This winter crop of Knol Khol carry heavy residues of toxic chemicals as chemical insecticides are sprayed over the crop almost daily.
Hundreds of people from outside J&K have damaged hundreds of hectares of land by adopting “Forced Cultivation”. They produce vegetables using heavy dosages of toxic chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides and bring in these toxic vegetables in local markets, without any check from the responsible agencies.
Punjab, which once was known for taking a lead in Green Revolution, having witnessed the naked dance of death due to entry of cancer and other serious neurological diseases through back-door from agricultural fields into their houses; has banned dozen of hazardous chemical pesticides/ insecticides and herbicides. They have shifted back to protected cultivation using big poly/ greenhouses and growing superfoods, using Indian traditional agriculture system and judicious/ minimum use of urea or pesticides. But, we in J&K, approximately 20 years behind Punjab, are still producing and selling toxic fruits and vegetables in markets, putting the health of our people to grave risk.
One and half year back only, the Punjab Government banned the sale of 20 pesticides/insecticides viz. Phosphamidion, Mathomyl, Phorate, Triazophos, Monocrotophos along with several other Class I pesticides. These toxic Class I pesticides are categorized into extremely hazardous (Alass IA) and highly hazardous (Class IB) to human health by the World Health Organization and are banned in many countries. Phosphamidion is banned in 49 countries, Phorate in 37 countries, Trizophos in 40 countries and Monocrotophos in 60 countries as per the report published by Centre for Science & Environment (CSE) a nonprofit public interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi, India. In Jammu and Kashmir the use of toxic chemical pesticides is very high: even higher than its usage in Punjab & Haryana. Punjab and Haryana, taking lessons from past catastrophe caused due to excessive use of toxic chemical pesticides consumption, have taken number of strict measures resulting in a declining trend in pesticides consumption.
Very few among us may be ignorant about daily Abohar-Jodhpur passenger train which is named by locals as ‘Cancer Train’, running between Bathinda and Bikaner; The poor patients mostly the farmers and their family members suffering from Cancer as a result of the adverse impact of ‘Green Revolution’ on public health in Punjab, especially in Punjab’s Malwa region (the cotton belt) travel to Acharya Tulsi Regional Cancer Treatment and Research Center Bikaner for undergoing free of cost treatment for Cancer. As a bad impact of Green Revolution, Cancer and other serious health problems including neuro disorders among newly born children entered into Punjab farmer’s homes and took shape of epidemic since 1990’s.
We, in J&K too, are witnessing a spurge in number of patients suffering from cancer or other serious diseases involving vital organs like kidney, stomach, liver, pancreas etc.
A number of toxic substances have entered the food chain and bear upon health of the people. Fruits and vegetables are sometimes artificially ripened up using banned chemicals like calcium carbide, oxytoxine, use of ethylene in unpermissible way and more than 100 ppm. Besides this it is observed that daily food items including fruits and vegetables enter Jammu and Kashmir from outside state at Lakhanpur without any sample lifting by the Food Control Organization. Food safety is an important concern and it is the prime responsibility of Food Control Organization to ensure that food items including fruit and vegetarian, which enter the state either from other states of the country are checked for adulteration, toxic chemicals residues and hygiene. And, samples are lifted on daily basis by the Food Control Organization on random test basis.

The government may also intervene and constitute a high level committee comprising scientists, judges and senior bureaucrats to ponder upon this important issue and review the present guidelines and permissions granted for manufacturing, stocking, sale and usage of highly hazardous class I chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and weedicides in Jammu and Kashmir. We may not wait till some major catastrophe happens, as we have witnessed in Malwa belt of Punjab, Vidharba region of Maharashtra, parts of Kerala and Karnataka.

Source; State Times