The Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers presented its report on ‘Insecticides and Pesticides – Promotion and Development including Safe Usage – Licensing Regime for Insecticides’ on December 19, 2023. Pesticides are broadly of four types: insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and bio-pesticides. Herbicides kill/control the growth of weeds, and have the …
Simultaneous cultivation of several crops , using organic manures and pesticides, can raise productivity, says Karnataka's L Narayana Reddy. CATTLE urine fights pests such as white flies far more effectively than chemicals such as malathion; besides, dung manure doesn't lower paddy productivity, says organic farmer L Narayana Reddy, of Sorhanese …
THE PESTICIDES Association of India (PAI) and the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) are at loggerheads over a draft notification that includes pesticides in the list of products to be covered by the eco-mark scheme. The scheme labels products that are environment friendly. Though the MEF claims this will …
Contemporary environmental consciousness and concern among professionals in the West was triggered off by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which was published in 1962. Summing up the disastrous impact of chemical pesticides on ecological cycles, she said in the book, "The chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life... …
WHAT DISTINGUISHES the Gloria Land (GL) farm of Pondicherry"s Aurobindo Ashram and the farm run by Julie and Vivek Cariappa near Mysore from that of their neighbours, is that a mash of leaves, cattle dung and a carefully chosen mix of crops have displaced inorganic fertilisers and pesticides completely. Yet …
IRKSOME mosquitoes? Forget mosquito repellant mats, grow a geranium instead, and have the odour of citronella waft the annoying creatures away. An Australian company has developed a new plant -- Mozzie Buster -- a cross between an African geranium and citronella grass, which they say is an extremely effective mosquito …
Which is better: a forest where trees and plants grow wild and free or a plantation of one or two species of trees, lined up neatly? Forests in their natural state are generally regarded as useless and chaotic whereas orderly plantations are considered to be "sustainably yielding" for logging. The …
THOUGH chemical manufacturer DuPont withdrew its Benlate DF fungicide from the market in 1991 and subsequently paid about $500 million to settle nearly 2,000 claims filed by growers, its troubles are not yet over. In the first of more than 400 Benlate damage suits, a jury in Arkansas found the …
WHEN SWARMS of desert locusts from Africa invaded Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat in early July this yearfarmers helplessly re-lived the horror of seeing their crops destroyed. Says Prahlad Singh of Derdokabas village in Jodhpur districtAfter waiting for years, we finally had a good monsoon and the crops grew well. …
With tonnes of toxic chemicals being poured into the desert soil to kill locusts, experts warn of damage to the area's delicate ecosystem. The widespread use of banned organochlorine pesticides -- dieldrin in particular -- is expected to have serious ecological effects. Officials counter, "We use a mild mixture of …
MORE THAN 36 tonnes of highly toxic chemicals are stored even after their date of expiry in the godowns of the Agriculture Inputs Corp at Amlekhgunj, in central Nepal. The Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) says these pesticides were supposed to be burnt in the kiln of the Hetauda …
When the Union agriculture ministry announced in July, with great fanfare its decision to ban 12 pesticides and restrict 13 others, it received much kudos from nongovernmental organisations and voluntary agencies. Praise was showered on agriculture secretary M S Gill. However, enquiries by Down To Earth revealed the decision on …
SEVERAL foods people all over the country consume daily -- milk, butter and cereals, for example -- have been found to contain substances hazardous to health by a nationwide survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR surveyors found that as much as 87 per cent …
African locusts, which have been infesting parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan since mid-July, are keeping pest control experts on their toes. The agriculture ministry has pressed into action two helicopters and a Vayudoot aircraft, armed with sprayers and insecticides, to fight the locusts that rode a cyclonic storm from Oman …
POISONING of nature is a constant obsession with BBC's Nature series. The latest episode in the series was on the ubiquitous yet controversial chlorine, a chemical the programme dubs as "The Devil's Element". The title has been derived from the words of a professor of environmental chemistry: "There are 91 …
ALTHOUGH the tulip originated in southeast Asia, the tiny European nation of Holland has transformed the flower into both a national symbol and a major foreign exchange-earner. Between March and May every year, when the tulips bloom, thousands of tourists rush to take in the sight of the rainbow colours …
TWO FILMS made by Krishnendu Bose and sponsored by INTACH, which were shown in New Delhi recently, make a pointed and absorbing examination of a current agricultural dilemma -- how do you achieve productivity without paying the ecological price of the Green Revolution? The films attempt to go beyond the …
USE OF additives, irradiation and the threat of pesticide residues and food-borne infections have led to the quality of diet being questioned these days as never before. Factory Farming comes as a comprehensive review of modern livestock farming and its implications, mainly in the context of Europe and North America. …
IN APRIL this year, some US communities found themselves seeking cover from helicopters spraying the pesticide malathion. This is the starting point for an investigation in the BBC series, Nature. The episode, called Medfly Madness, shows the manner in which saving a $18 billion fruit and vegetable industry takes precedence …
STRINGENT environmental stipulations and falling quality, due to techniques used to boost production, have resulted in a crisis in the high-tech, $2.8 billion a year Dutch flower industry. Dutch growers are also hurting because of increasing competition from southern European countries, Israel and some developing countries, which has reduced prices …
SCIENTISTS at the Malaria Research Centre (MRC), New Delhi, say neem oil used in low concentrations effectively repels malaria-carrying mosquitoes that are resistant to pesticides. This is welcome news because malaria has re-emerged as a major public health threat because the malaria-causing microorganism, Plasmodium falciparum, is increasingly resistant to chloroquine …
