Author Archives: admin

•

Chennai: At least five farm workers have died in two months because of exposure to pesticides in the cotton fields of Perambalur and Ariyalur, investigations by advocacy groups have revealed.
Following reports of farm workers dying or being hospitalised due to pesticide exposure and poisoning, an eight-member team from various organisations that work with farmers visited five villages in both districts and met bereaved families, officials and doctors.

•

Chennai, December 7th 2017: A fact finding team that investigated the recent spate of pesticide poisonings in Perambalur and Ariyalur districts of Tamil Nadu slammed the state government for its inaction so far despite hundreds of farmers and farm workers being affected. It is estimated that at least 200 to 300 persons have been hospitalised in the past two months after exposure to deadly pesticides, and at least six deaths have occurred, in 3 districts of Tamil Nadu. Reports from other districts are emerging now. However, no ex-gratia relief to the affected, nor concrete preventive measures have been put in place by the government. “This situation is highly preventable and no pesticide poisonings should have occurred at all, if the government had ensured that bannable pesticides were stopped from being sold and used, and if ecological alternatives were taught to farmers for crop protection”, said the team members who presented their findings to the media today.

•

Lancet. 2017 Oct 21

We found no evidence that means reduction through improved household pesticide storage reduces pesticide self-poisoning. Other approaches, particularly removal of highly hazardous pesticides from agricultural practice, are likely to be more effective for suicide prevention in rural Asia.

•

Fatally toxic class I pesticides must be banned at the earliest, says CSE  

  • Death of farmers due to pesticide poisoning in Maharashtra is unfortunate and could have been avoided; points towards complete failure of agriculture departments in managing pesticides 
  • Pesticide poisoning and deaths due to accidental intake of pesticides is a long festering problem in India  
  • The incident highlights the urgent need to fix several long-standing gaps in pesticide management in the country
  • Most urgently, India needs to ban use of class I pesticides which are very toxic; many of these are banned in other countries
  • India needs a new Pesticide Management Bill to stop the unsafe use of toxic pesticides and improve enforcements

•

Even as the Maharashtra agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar has called for a ban on the herbicide tolerant (HT) genetically modified cotton, the Delhi-based South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC) has claimed that the illegal market is worth about Rs472 crore.

About 35 lakh packets of illegal HT cotton hybrids were sold this kharif season across Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. The SABC also claimed that 8.5 lakhs hectares, or 7% of the total cotton growing area in the country, is under the illegal HT cultivation.