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ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH ASPECTS OF PESTICIDES USE IN INDIAN
AGRICULTURE
Rajendran,
Dr. S. “Environment And Health Aspects Of Pesticides Use
In Indian Agriculture” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh
and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International
Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December,
2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras
and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 353
– 373.
Abstract:
In the recent past,
pesticide related issues have been extensively highlighted in
the media including research journals and attracted wider debate
and sharp focus among the interested groups in India. Indiscriminate
and excessive application of synthetic pesticides damaged not
only the environment and agriculture but also have entered into
the food chain thereby affecting health and development. The main
intention of the introduction of pesticides was to prevent and
control insect pests and diseases in the field crops and of course,
initially the use of pesticides reduced pest attack and paved
the way for increasing the crop yield as expected. Simultaneously,
increased use of chemical pesticides has resulted in contaminating
the environment and the long-term implications on the society
are found multidimensional. In India pests cause crop loss of
more than RS 6000 crores annually, of which 33 per cent are by
weeds, 26 per cent by diseases, 20 per cent by insects, 10 per
cent by birds and rodents and the remaining (11 per cent) is due
to other reasons. The magnitude of the problem would grow further
as more and more (newer) pests and diseases likely to attack crops
and the need to use pesticides in different forms will be necessitated
in the years to come.
The common formulation
types of pesticide are liquids, wettable powder, emulsifiable
concentrates and dusts, and when they are sprayed, move through
the air and eventually end up in other parts of the environment
like soil and water. Also pesticides break into ground water,
soil and surface water depending upon soil type, temperature,
vapor pressure, the amount of sunlight and rain, the water solubility
of the pesticides and magnitude of application. The pesticides
have toxic effects like reproductive, teratogenic, mutagenic and
carcinogenic as well as on ecology including non-target host plants
and animals. Theoretically agro-chemicals are used on large scale
for all crops under a market oriented farming system but under
subsistence farming scenario farmers tend to use less quantum
of pesticides as they consider that production is sufficient to
meet the domestic requirements. While the intensity of production
increases towards market orientation from subsistence level, invariably
farmers use a high dosage of agro-chemicals for generating more
income via production. Another aspect is that when the land becomes
scarce and the agriculture production moves towards market orientation
(with scarce land), more chemicals including pesticides are required.
Now as the cultivable land becomes a scarce and inelastic commodity,
due to population growth, the situation will be aggravated in
the years to come especially in highly populated countries like
India and China. It is to be noted that in India the annual pesticide
business is estimated at around RS 5000 crores and in coming years,
this would grow faster and soon becomes a major player in the
world.
Detailed literature
on the environment and health dimensions of pesticide use in Indian
agriculture is found to be scarce. In addition to this there exists
poor appropriate and alternative framework to the use of pesticides.
Under this scenario, it is important to understand the crucial
issues like what are the environment and health costs of pesticide
use? What alternative frameworks would help solve the problem?
To address a few issues this study is taken up and it relies on
available literature on the subject particularly in India and
is divided into five sections. After introduction, the next section
provides the factors contributing to the growth of pesticides
use and the third section illustrates the laboratory findings
and impact of pesticides use and fourth part examines the possible
remedial mechanisms and the final section deals with the conclusion
and suggestions. This study found that application of pesticides
increased as much as 30 times over fifty years in India (from
merely 2.35 thousand tonnes to around 60 thousand tones between
1959 and 2000). Liberal subsidies, extensive and intensive pest
attack, shortsighted public policies, lack of legal framework,
nepotism, strong campaigns favoring pesticides, poor alternative
systems and farmers’ attitude have contributed to increasing
pesticide application. It is obvious that continuos and indiscriminate
pesticide use contributes to many environment pollution and health
problems.
Laboratory findings
indicate that the environment is highly polluted as there are
many toxic metals and residues found in the soil, water, humans,
animal and plants. The pesticide particles also enter into agricultural
products (some times more than 500 times of maximum permissible
limit). Another observation is that pesticide residues at alarming
rates are observed in bottled water and soft drinks. The source
for packaged water and soft drinks companies is largely from agriculture
fields and industrial suburbs. Maximum permissible limit for pesticide
residues in packaged water and soft drinks exceeds many times
the international norms like European Economic Union. Laboratory
results also reveal that pesticide residues present in leafy vegetables
create health disorders like neural tube defect (NTD) among newborn
children. These findings enable us to corroborate the fact that
pesticide residues are responsible for causing environmental problems
and health disorders. Continous, indiscriminate and non-judicial
application of pesticides contribute to unviable agricultural
production. It was also brought out that farming with external
factory made inputs including pesticides becomes less profitable
in the long run. Research findings indicate that pesticide residues
contribute to polluting the soil, ground water and surface water
besides affecting animals, plants and human beings. Water became
unfit for consumption and living beings became victims of the
pesticides. In the pretext of agricultural development health
disorders like cancer and mental retardation are observed via
pesticide use. Human (breast) milk and cow milk are found with
pesticide (endosulphan) residues and many habitants suffer from
diseases like cancer, epilepsy, skin diseases and unbearable suffering
due to pesticide use, some of the villagers committed suicides.
Thus pesticide use takes a heavy toll on environment and health
and hence there is a need for alternative models for synthetic
inputs.
Possible alternativse
could be application of non-toxic environment friendly formulations
and solutions to combat pest for maintaining environment security
and creating a healthy society for attaining overall development
and well being. In fact there is a paradigm shift in agriculture
towards low external input sustainable farming and subsequently
(ecological) farming with only local inputs. Ecological or organic
farming is considered as environmentally sustainable, economically
viable and socially adaptable through which sustainable agriculture
development (SAD) is attained. Organic farming rely on local resources
including plants that have pest repellent properties to control
the pests. In India it is estimated that around 3000 plants do
possess pest repellent features, which need to be scientifically
studied and utilized for promoting sustainable agriculture development.
In fact, some of the research centers have already started working
on this direction but in a compartmentalized form. Comprehensive
research by different institutions and individuals in coordination
with stakeholders – farmers – on alternatives to pesticides
would solve the problem. This needs careful examination and understanding
of the whole issue of pesticide use in the larger context of environment
and health for attaining social equity with economic development.
It is clear from this study that pesticide use has increased manifold
obviously due to many complex factors. Research findings reveal
that pesticide residues have been found in the environment many
times higher than the maximum permissible limit. Pesticide residues
present in the environment affect the soil, water, agricultural
products, animals and plants. Continuos application of pesticides
have caused diseases like cancer and epilepsy and the people have
been made to suffer for years. Alternative techniques to pesticides
are to be found viable in the long run and hence a concerted effort
needs to be put by all concerned for promoting SAD in the broader
framework of environment and health.
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