Pesticides

Forty-sixth report on insecticides & pesticides: promotion and development including safe usage - licensing regime for insecticides

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 …

The only viable solution

It is very interesting to compare the costs of carrying out bioenvironmental control measures and chemical spray ing. "It is the cheapest way of preventing malaria, cheaper even than DDT,' confirms V P Sharma, director, Malaria Research Centre, New Delhi. "And on a national basis, it will turn out even …

Producing poison

negotiators from the us and 28 other countries are nearing agreement on a treaty to restrict the production and use of toxic chemicals. But reports that Russia still produces and uses polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs), the poisonous chemical that has been banned years ago in the us and other countries, came …

Childhood cancers

There has been an alarming rise in cases of childhood cancers in the last two decades. According to reports in Environmental Health Perspectives and The Ecologist, this has been attributed to several environmental factors - prominent among them being the high levels of chemical pollutants in the environment. A number …

Governments alone cannot combat pollution

On the objectives of the Bose Institute: For several years, scientists at the Bose Institute have been studying allergins and its effect on human bodies. They have been trying to map the various sources of this allergy forming pollen grains originating in different parts of the country. Bose Institute has …

PESTS CONTROL

Experts have blamed overuse of pesticides for 25-30 per cent loss in Nepal's agricultural output. "The gross agricultural production of the nation is affected by the misuse of pesticides. So there is an urgent need to educate farmers,' they said. While attending a workshop on "Integrated Pest Management and Weeds …

Another pesticide treadmill

In the US, this is the third year of farmers successfully growing crops that are genetically engineered to make their own pesticide, known as Bt toxin, a natural poison obtained from the soil bacterium * Bacillus thuringensis *. Even organic farmers approve of Bt-crops as the toxin is highly specific …

Tea time tales

market forces, rather than ecological concern, have prompted some of the owners of the Darjeeling tea gardens to turn bio-organic. Germany, which is the largest buyer of Darjeeling tea, threatened to discontinue buying tea as they felt that the pesticide residual content in the tea produced in Darjeeling is above …

Abetment to suicide

the grim reaper has had a successful harvest. Death has walked through the village on padded feet, as did the pests in the fields. The dying crop whispers a dirge for the body of Kaselte Sammiah, a poor cotton farmer who committed suicide in village Sitarampur of Parkal division in …

Deadly concoctions

unable to identify the culprit (S litura) that appears only at night, ap farmers resorted to all kinds of pesticides in quantities that astound even the pesticide dealers, who reaped a rich harvest with sales spiralling through the roof. Little did the farmers realise that the pest had developed complete …

The debt trap

Cotton crop in general is highly susceptible to a number of pests and diseases. The farmer's problem is further aggravated by the intensive cultivation of the crop with large amounts of fertilisers and indiscriminate plant protection measures. "This leads to increased cost of production, less returns and development of pesticides …

White gold rush

cotton is referred to as Tella Bangarum , or white gold, in ap . India has the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world, about 75 million ha, but is fifth in production, which stands at 13,500,000 bales per annum. "The average cotton productivity of the world (552 kg,ha) …

Cold chillies

It is not just cotton. Most other crops have also failed in Telangana. The standing chilli crop in Warangal district has been affected by fruit rot, while the early flowering of the rabi paddy crop has been causing confusion among scientists. Fruit rot has affected about 7,000 hectares of the …

False, misguided steps

the reasons for the unprecedented pest attack and pesticide resistance in ap are not hard to find. Pests have a deep association with the host plants. Crop rotation interrupts this relationship. This is not followed in ap any more, the same crops being grown season after season, year after year. …

Lacking commitment

Various committees appointed by the Union and state governments have visited pest-affected areas in Andhra Pradesh in the past to assess the damage to the crops. However, precious little has resulted from them. In 1988, a team headed by P D Ojha, the then deputy governor of the Reserve Bank …

MONEYMAKERS

leprosy vaccine soon: Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited has planned to launch the world's first immuno-therapeutic leprosy vaccine, called Leprovac by June this year. Pran Talwar and his colleagues at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) have developed the vaccine that would cost Rs 6 per dose and of Rs 50 …

The seeds of traditional wisdom

he has abandoned all that is seen as modern and progressive in farming. He uses no chemicals, fertilisers, prepared compost or pesticides. Forget tractors, he does not plough the soil. He does no weeding. Notwithstanding, he procures a yield that is quality-wise the best, and quantitatively more than enough. He …

Better than the pest

the excessive use of chemical pesticides has led to the emergence of several pesticide-resistant varieties. For long, Andhra Pradesh

Suicide by pesticide

death hovers over Andhra Pradesh ( ap ). More than 150 cotton farmers in the districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar and Warangal in the Telengana region have committed suicide since June 1997, five of them in the first five days of January 1998. All consumed the same pesticide they used 40 …

Popular poisons

the ever-increasing pressure to increase food production to meet current demand requires protection of crops from pests. The use of pesticides is, therefore, inevitable, and constitutes an integral part of modern crop-management practices. It has been estimated that crop damage is as high as 20 per cent where pesticides are …

In shallow waters

Spraying of pesticides and insecticides in paddy fields has posed serious threats to several varieties of rare and attractive fresh water fish in Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka. As paddy fields are close to the waterways, the chemicals reach these streams and rivers. The most beautiful variety of fresh water …

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