Haryana registers decline in pesticide use

Chandigarh, Jun 22 (UNI) Haryana has recorded a significant decline in the use of pesticides due to constant efforts being made by the Agriculture Department to preserve the environment.

The consumption of pesticides in the year 2003-04 was 4730 metric tonnes which declined to 4700 metric tonness in the year 2004-05, 4650 metric tonness in 2005-06, 4600 metric tonnes in the year 2006-07 and 4390 metric tonne in 2007-08.

Disclosing this here here today, Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Singh Chattha said that to minimise the use of pesticides, Farm Field Schools were organised under special campaigns which were carried out by the Agri Department. As many as 30 farmers were imparted training in Integrated Pest Management in each school in a week, he added.

He said an ultra-modern pesticide testing laboratory is being set up at Panchkula to speed up the procedure for testing the quality of pesticides being sold in the market.

Mr Chatha said that a financial assistance of Rs 45 lakh had been provided for the construction of this lab by the Union Ministry of Agriculture. Similarly, Rs 25 lakh had also been provided to equip the laboratory with necessary instruments.

The laboratory would have the capacity to test 1100 samples in a year, increasing the testing capacity of all the state laboratories to 4400 samples, he added.

He said that three laboratories were already functional at Sirsa, Karnal and Rohtak. The newly set up laboratory at Rohtak had been made functional from April this year and the other two were functional for the last couple of years. The State government would not let any sub-standard pesticides supply to the farmers, he added.

The Minister said the Haryana Agriculture Department had set a target of testing 3300 samples of pesticides during the year 2008-09. A special campaign was carried out from April 25 to May 20 to test the quality of the pesticide in the State.

The second phase of this campaign had already been started from June 10 and it would continue till July 10. During the campaign not only the samples of pesticides but also those of seeds, fertiliSers and weedicides would be tested, he said.

He said that in the year 2007-08, about 1732 samples of pesticides were tested, out of which 126 samples had failed.

Similarly, out of a total of 2266 samples of fertilizers tested, 40 samples were found sub-standard he said.

Mr Chatha said that a target to test 5100 samples had been set up up by the Haryana Agriculture Department for the year 2008-09.

He said legal action had already been initiated against the defaulters, whose samples were not found upto the mark.

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