Ban on Pesticides

Why in news?

The Centre has issued a draft order banning the manufacture and sale of pesticides on grounds of the grave risk they pose to humans and animals.

What pesticides would be banned?

A large number of countries have already banned these pesticides and, experts say India should too.

How much pesticide is used in Punjab?

Punjab has just 1.53% of the country’s area.
But, its pesticide usage stood at 9.2% of the country in 2018-19 and over 8% in 2019-20.
In Punjab, chemical pesticide consumption is said to be decreasing, it is still continuous and excessive.
It stands after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in pesticide usage, but both states have a 6-times larger area as compared to Punjab.
Punjab has started using bio pesticides and its usage has increased from 136 MT in 2014-15 to 286 MT in 2019-20.
There is still a wide variety of pesticides available to farmers for various uses.
Punjab tops the country in terms of per hectare usage of fertilisers.

On which crops are these 27 pesticides mainly used?

These pesticides are used on almost all crops - rice, wheat, cotton, oilseeds, various vegetables, fruit etc.
Punjab can do away with these pesticides, though there are no other alternatives available at present for around 9 of the 27 pesticides.

What are the alternatives available to farmers?

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques, which are using cost-effective mechanical methods,
Bio-pesticides, and
Molecular target-specific low toxicity pesticides, usage of which is extremely low, and which are a little more expensive.

Neem-based biopesticides, which are environment-friendly, is very effective cost-wise and yield-wise.
It’s bitter taste keeps pests away from plants.
Moreover, the right kind of seeds and precise irrigation can help farmers keep the pests away.
Both PAU and Punjab agriculture department have been encouraging IPM extensively.

Which methods are used to control pests under IPM?

Under IPM, simple hand-picking, light traps, pheromone traps, sticky traps, glue boards etc. are used to control pests.
IPM aims to protect soil and the environment from poisonous elements
Light trap - Electric bulb is switched on during night time for an hour close to the fields.
The pests get attracted to the light in the night and then lights are switched it off.
All the attracted pests fall into the diesel/petrol mixed water and get killed.

Pheromone traps - They are meant for mating disruption, for suppression of pest population, and mass trapping.
Such traps slowly release synthetic attractants which help in the detection of a single species of insect in the fields.
Seed shelters - Farmers attract birds by installing seed shelters in the fields and such birds consume the harmful insects in fields.
IPM, heavy reliance needs to be placed upon ‘monitoring and surveillance’ of the crops and fields.

How does regular monitoring & surveillance help against pest attacks?

It can make farmers aware of the presence of pests and insects in the field at an early stage.
This will help them arrest the problem before it crosses the Economic Threshold Level (ETL) of the presence of these pests.

Punjab had seen the lowest cotton productivity in 2015 when whitefly had attacked the cotton crop on a large area.
But there is a 30% decrease usage of pesticides in the cotton crop from 2016 to date.
There is an increase in its productivity to 756 kg lint per hectare in 2016, a year after the devastating loss of the cotton crop, and 800 kg in 2019.

How else is less usage of pesticides beneficial?

Instead of spraying herbicides to clear weeds, farmers can hire manual labour to remove it.
This will save their fields from chemical sprays.
Also, the money spent on buying harmful pesticides can be diverted towards paying the labour engaged in handpicking such weeds.
Farmers use herbicides to clean weeds from their fields and the area around the fields to keep pests away.

Source: Indian Express