5:53 AM
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The most pathetic situation comes when people fright with food. Consumers are in great consternation and bewildered to use agricultural products (mostly vegetables and fruits) available in nearby market. This is due to vegetables are found to have laced with chemical pesticides in recent test and replication of news on public media.
Excessive use of chemical pesticides for higher production has created serious human health threats. The effect of which
is equally visible in producers as well as consumers. Increased cases of
cancer, diseases of kidney and liver are evidences of this.
In one hand, we are importing harmful
chemicals without any restriction; in another hand, due to improper use of
pesticides, products are harvested immediately after spraying pesticides and
dispatched to the market. Use of unregistered and restricted pesticides has
increased by many folds, given that pesticides have to formally register before.
General people are being victim this.
The report by recently established
Pesticide Residue Rapid Analysis laboratory in Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market
proves it. Among the total 187 samples of vegetables tested, 155 are found to
have safe for human consumption, 6 having excessive pesticide (has to wait many
days before consumption) and 26 (14%) of which is found to have laced with
health hazardous chemical residue. According to World Health Organization
Standards, those pesticides having >5000 ml in systematic pesticides and
>5000 mg in contact pesticides are safe for human health based on the Lethal
Dose (LD) 50 in Rat (mg per Kg of body weight).
Different restricted pesticides like
DDT. BHC, Endosulphan, Methyl Parathion and Monocrotophus etc. are still in
Nepalese market. Most of these pesticides have been restricted more than 10
years ago. This may be due to lacking strong monitoring and punishment to
relevant dealers and agro-vets. Similarly, those pesticides that are not registered
to use in Nepal are also excessively used due to open boarder and easy excess
to Indian market.
Government of Nepal and its capillaries are
not taking it seriously, though, it has directly affected human health and
large amount of money is wasted for this. In a step, government of Nepal has
restricted farmers of eight different districts to sell their products in
Kathmandu market. This is not a long-term solution it may rather affect the
commercialization of agriculture in days to come.
There are many options for improvement.
Different traps, pheromones and biological pesticides have been developed to
control the pests. Traps like light trap, phenol trap, yellow sticky trap and
pit fall traps are successfully practiced by increasing number of farmers.
Different pheromones or lures are also available in Nepalese market major being
Methyl Euginal, Helli lure, Pectino lure, Culear and DBM/Protula lure etc.
In recent days, use of biopesticide has been
increased. Biopesticides like Ajadirectous, Varticelium Lekani, Nuclear
Polyhydorsis Viruses(NPV), Entomopathogenic Nematode, Trichoderma Viridi & Harjanium,
Bacilous Thurangenesis Kustaki and Pseudomonous Florescence are popular
biopesticides. The use of these methods has to increase to have a win win
situation. The losses from pest will be control in one hand and in another
hand; detrimental effects of chemical pesticides on consumers are reduced.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a
very useful technique to control insects, diseases, weeds, rodents and other
pests. In this method, priority is given for pest resistant varieties and
cultural, physical and mechanical techniques to control the pests. Many
biological control methods like use of parasites, bacteria, fungus, Viruses
(NPV) and nematodes are used. Further step is use of chemical attractants and
use of indigenous local techniques. If the pest is not controlled then
different hormones like Aaplor are used. Up to this, the chances of controlling
pest are very high, but if pests are not controlled then safe chemical
pesticides are applied carefully. In the cases, farmers have to use chemical
pesticides, those safe pesticides having > 501 mg/Kg of harmful chemical
content for LD 50, have to use to reduce the health hazard.
Therefore, these activities, mostly use
of excessive dose of chemical pesticides and immediate harvest after the spray
have to be discouraged and uses of alternatives to chemical pesticides have to
encourage. On the top of that, policies and acts have to develop and implemented
and different useful information dissemination to users of pesticide and
consumer of the product has to be followed immediately. Otherwise, nation has
to loss huge resources, productive labors and economic growth and people has to
suffer from many diseases and deformities in near future.
