Suicides among farmers in India are often linked to the high cost of input for intensive crops, especially with respect to pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides).
Farmers borrow money to meet the costs and in the event of a crop failure, end up with large debts.
Nearly 42 per cent of the crop productivity is lost due to weeds, pests and diseases. This necessitates repeated application of pesticides leading to debt and desperation and sometimes suicides.
Why farmers are using lot of pesticides? The less the farmers know about insect ecology, the more insecticides are used. They are spraying nine rounds when five are required. This often leads to insecticide resistance and chaotic fluctuations in insect populations, exacerbating the problem.
Farmers know that the pesticides are highly toxic but they are not aware of their adverse effect on environment.
One of the reasons may be the lack of education. In district Ambala, 5 per cent farmers are graduate and 55 per cent have just passed middle school and almost 25 per cent are illiterate. The education status in other states is still worse.
Indiscriminate use of pesticides in the modern agricultural practices leads to contamination of soil, surface and ground water. Their residual concentration in the food products is alarming. Leafy vegetables, cereals, fruits, rice, meat, milk, fish and even human milk have been contaminated by various pesticides in a range of 0.1mg-25.7mg.
The herbicide, 2, 4-D is identified as a carcinogen in humans and dogs and the insecticide acephate is a mutagon, carcinogen, foetotoxic, feminizes rats and kills birds. Organophosphate pesticides affect the nervous system by disrupting the enzyme that regulates acetycholine, a neurotransmitter.
In India, the use of 2, 4-D and atrazine herbicides has been increaseing every year. Gradually, evidence began to accrue that pesticides might pose greater risks than first assumed.
How one can minimize this problem? The answer to this lies in insect resistant crops that are developed through genetic engineering. It utilises the common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that has been used commercially for more than 60 years as an insecticide.
But even in 2010 the total sales of Bt products constituted less than 3 per cent of the total value of all insecticides, as there are risks and benefits to currently available genetically engineered plants. The non-consumable genetically engineered crops can be grown as it reduces the amount of pesticides used in some crops and contributes to enhance safety for human beings and the environment.
Copyright : The Tribune Trust, 2010.
