{"id":34586,"date":"2018-10-31T12:05:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T06:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34586"},"modified":"2018-10-31T12:05:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T06:35:01","slug":"toxic-farming-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/toxic-farming-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic farming:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/toxic-farming\/article19867927.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toxic farming<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After an array of farmer deaths \u00a0because of pesticides, it is high time that the government had taken some concrete steps to regulate toxic chemicals used in agriculture.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Usage of pesticides in India: an overview:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term pesticide covers a wide range of compounds including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, molluscicides, nematicides, plant growth regulators and others.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The production of pesticides started in India in 1952. The pattern of pesticide usage in India is different from that for the world in general. For example,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, 76% of the pesticide used is insecticide, as against 44% globally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>main use of pesticides<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in India is for cotton crops, followed by paddy and wheat.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the harmful effects of pesticides?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Accidents in pesticide manufacturing units cause \u00a0<\/span><b>great loss of human life<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The high risk groups exposed to pesticides include <\/span><b>production workers, formulators, sprayers, mixers, loaders and agricultural farm workers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harmful chemicals may <\/span><b>seep into and contaminate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ground water. ( which can further lead to <\/span><b>Bio-accumulation and bio-magnification)<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Repeated use of pesticides on cotton, fruits, vegetables, tobacco and other crops <\/span><b>causes harm to beneficial organisms <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">like biocontrol agents, soil, wild and aquatic life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pesticides may <\/span><b>kill grain- and plant-feeding birds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are measures taken to regulate the use of pesticides in India?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Pesticide Management Bill \u2013 2008:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0Proposed as a step towards promoting safe use of pesticides, this Bill seeks to regulate the manufacture, inspection, testing and distribution of pesticides.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bill establishes <\/span><b>a procedure to licence manufacturers, distributors and retailers of pesticides<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to be administered by state governments. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A Central Pesticides Board to be formed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to advice on use and disposal of pesticides on sound lines, as envisaged under the law.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>stronger law will eliminate the weaknesses<\/b> <b>in the current rules <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that govern enforcement and introduce penalties where there are none.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Aligning the new pesticides regulatory framework with food safety laws and products<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> used in health care will make it more worthwhile. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the alternatives to pesticides?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are alternatives to using pesticides. These are generally known as <\/span><b>sustainable agriculture or alternative agriculture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Some of the alternative methods are as follows:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Organic farming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0It relies on fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Crop rotation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar or different types of crops in the same area in sequenced seasons.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It helps in reducing soil erosion and increases soil fertility and crop yield.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Polyculture:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, providing crop diversity in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Trap crops: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A trap crop is a plant that attracts agricultural pests, usually insects, away from nearby crops.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This form of companion planting can save the main crop from decimation by pests without the use of pesticides.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Organic farming<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an alternative agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Organic farming continues to be developed by various organic agriculture organizations today. It relies on fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged. In general, organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toxic farming:\u00a0 Context: After an array of farmer deaths \u00a0because of pesticides, it is high time that the government had taken some concrete steps to regulate toxic chemicals used in agriculture. Usage of pesticides in India: an overview: Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds. The term pesticide covers a wide&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/toxic-farming-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Toxic farming:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704821255},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}