Farmers frown at fungal attack
Potato farmers of some northern and central districts fear production losses this winter due to sudden fungal attack in crops.
Experts have attributed fall in the nighttime temperature, fog and recent rain to the spreading of late blight, the most deadly fungal disease of potatoes, in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Rajshahi, Bogra, Mymensingh and Kishoreganj.
They, however, have advised farmers to spray proper fungicide dosages to control the damage and stop further spread. There are some reports of tomatoes also being affected.
Ziaur Rahman, farmer in Rangpur's Taraganj upazila, said potatoes on his two acres of land have been substantially damaged by the late blight after a spell of rain on January 10.
Rezaul Karim, an official of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) at Taraganj, has acknowledged receipt of the news of fungal infections from different areas, but added that situation was still under control.
"We have been experiencing unpredictable weather with changes in the night temperatures, fog and rain in the month of January and sporadic drizzle. This weather is very favourable for disease like blight on potatoes and tomatoes. Reports of blight in tomatoes in the kitchen garden of BAU [Bangladesh Agricultural University], blight in potato fields and blight in chilli fields have been pouring in," M Bahadur Meah, a revered plant pathologist, told The Daily Star recently.
Bahadur, who heads the country's first and only campus-based Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic at BAU, advised spraying of fungicides like Daconil or Acrobat twice a week vegetables, especially in beans, thus making them hazardous to public health.
Aside from consumers, agricultural farm workers are also affected because of their exposure to the deadly chemicals.
"Each season is suitable for growing a particular crop. Although bean is a winter crop, some farmers want to multiply their profits by growing it in summer when the weather is most favourable to insect infestation."
Most farmers are already aware of the fact that early varieties of winter crops are prone to massive pest attacks but still a large number of them grow these varieties using high doses of pesticides, only to make exorbitant profits before low-priced regular winter crops hit the market, Julfikar observed.
A number of farmers in Pabna, the largest bean-producing belt in the country, said they were using excessive volumes of pesticides on the crops in fear of losing their investment due to pest attacks.
Some farmers blamed the weather change for the severity of pest attacks while experts said farmers' excessive use of pesticides might have caused insects to grow resistance to the chemicals.
"The overuse of pesticides year after year is killing beneficial insects, but the harmful ones are developing resistance to the substance," Julfikar said.
A large number of farmers of the early-variety winter crops start cultivation in mid-August with a target to harvest crops in early November before the regular winter crops start reaching the markets. Turning a blind eye to the risk to human health and the ecology, they continue spraying the crops with toxic chemicals until the day they send out those to markets.
With this early harvest "we can reap a profit of Tk 1 lakh to Tk 1.2 lakh from one bigha of land as opposed to only Tk 50,000 to Tk 70,000 profit from the same size of land," said Abu Taher, a bean farmer from Muladuli in Ishwardi.
Since the negative impacts of these toxic vegetables on human bodies are not immediately visible, most consumers are overlooking the risk, said Iftekhar Mahamud, professor of medicine and former principal of Kushtia Medical College.
"The toxic chemicals in these vegetables slowly affect many of our organs such as kidneys, lungs, eyes, stomach and even the brain."
Legal actions need to be taken against the farmers who endanger public health, Iftekhar added.
Hazards of the rampant use of chemicals -- be it pesticides or herbicides -- also include contamination of air, soil, water, turf and other vegetation and thus these toxic substances pose risks to a host of other organisms including soil microorganisms, beneficial insects, non-target plants, fish, birds and other wildlife, according to experts.
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