Winter Crops in Pabna: Farmers using too much pesticides to prevent pest attacks

Heedless of health and environmental implications, a section of farmers hell-bent on making a quick buck have been overusing pesticides on winter crops in the district's Ishwardi upazila.

Jamal Uddin, a farmer from Goyalbathan village, said he used to spray pesticides once or twice a week on beans, but this year severe pest attacks had forced him to spray it nearly twice as much over the same period.

He was using at least 150 to 200 millilitres of pesticides per week on each bigha of land.

However, the safe dose of moderate pesticides recommended per bigha a week is 30 to 40 millilitres while the dose of stronger pesticides should be 10 to 20 millilitres within the same period, said Bivutipushon Sharkar, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Pabna.

Applying excessive pesticides does not necessarily lead to better results, he said, adding that most farmers don't care how much pesticides they should apply on crops. Nor do they follow cautionary instructions.

The DAE cannot take any legal action against the abuse of pesticides.

"We have no magistracy authority for conducting drives against toxic vegetable producers. The department can only create awareness and observe production [of crops] by making visits to the fields.” 

Nearly 15 lakh tonnes of beans are likely to be harvested from 4,380 hectares of land in Pabna this year, Bivutipushon said.

Julfikar Hyder, principal scientific officer at the regional research centre of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute in Pabna, said indiscriminate use of pesticides increases the risk of a high level of toxic residues in crops and  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.