Pesticides pose health risk to farmers

CHUADANGA, Apr 7 (UNB): Excess use of pesticides in agricultural land put the lives of huge number of farmers of four upazilas here at health risk. Concerned sources said pesticides worth about Tk 200 million are used annually in lands of Sadar, Alamdanga, Damurhuda and Jibonnagar Upazilas. Huge quantities of different types of vegetables are produced in the district. About 35 per cent of country's vegetables are produced in the district, sources said. Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said there are a total of 97,582 hectares of cultivable land in the district. There are 75 dealers in the district to sell pesticides. Each dealer sells pesticides worth about Tk 2.5 million to 3 million on an average annually, said Abdul Kader, a dealer of Sadar Upazila. The farmers spray 200 gram liquid pesticide on per bigha of paddy field. Pesticides are used in vegetable field every two or three consecutive days. Hence, two to three kgs of liquid pesticide are required for per bigha of land in one season. District health department sources said farmers here are eating foods along with poison. Use of pesticides resulted in various diseases as most of the vegetables are being cultivated using excess pesticides. Besides, the land is also losing its fertility. Many useful insects along with different species of birds are on the verge of extinction for the rampant use of pesticides. As they have no knowledge about the use of pesticide, the farmers are gradually being inclined to excess use of pesticides. Local sources attributed the lack of responsibility of agriculture department to the present sorry state. Farmer Sharif Uddin of Sadar Upazila said that they are using pesticides as per their will in their fields to cultivate vegetables as they have no academic knowledge about how much they should use and when to stop use prior to harvesting. No initiative to raise awareness was taken by the concerned department though many farmers are falling sick to different diseases. Mohammad Rezaul Karim, Deputy Director of DAE, said his department carries out awareness programmes about the bad effect of use of pesticide involving farmers. Hence, he claimed that the use of pesticides in land has decreased to some extent.