New Delhi, March 10: "It is an irony that Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) strongly advocates increasing chemical doses in Indian agriculture on the basis of the fact that we still spray only about 330grams of pesticides per hectare, far less compared to the world average of 500gms per hectare. Their background argument is that of food security", writes Rajiv Betne for Toxic Links.
Nevertheless, level of contamination in vegetables in India is much higher than countries where chemical doses applied are far higher than ours. Why?
The reasons are:
- large-scale indiscriminate use of pesticides,
-disrespect for application time intervals,
-administering more than the recommended dosage,
-slack regulatory framework
-and highly unorganized markets.
The writer says: "We need to move towards safer agri-practices such as organic and non-chemical farming. We must have proper extension work at farm level. We should enact best international standards and establish appropriate enforcement regime. Further, and the most important of all is, we must stop this one way thinking about food security and growth in production and bring in food safety concern at par in policy making.
"We should also follow methods recommended for abating pesticides residues such as catch planting, microbial degradation and decontamination of media. Homegrown food, use of bio-pesticides and appropriate processing at consumers end con also reduce the risk.
Checks, Balances and Alternatives
There are umpteen scientific evidences about bad impact of chemicals in food items.
Over the years this has given strength to the concept of chemical-free agriculture such as organic farming. Fortunately the organic vegetable business in India is growing @ 20% and the premium is 10-50% higher. However, there are limitations to this and inorganic vegetables would continue to be a significant contributor to our food security.
So, till such time what is the way out?
There are international codes and conventions that govern the judicial use of agrochemicals. FAO 1985- International Code of Conduct on the Distribution/ Use of Pesticides was one of the first voluntary multilateral agreements on food security and safety.
Rotterdam Convention - United Nations treaty, 1998 is a multilateral treaty to promote shared responsibilities in import of hazardous chemicals.
The Stockholm Convention - United Nations treaty, 2001 talks of elimination and restriction of Persistent Organic Pollutants (synthesided organic compounds that persist in environment for years and impact life badly), including pesticides.
The United Nation's Codex Alimentarius Commission creates universal standards for maximum levels of pesticide residues in food item. Indian standards are largely governed by it.
India's pesticide regime is governed by Pesticide Management Act 2008.
There are other provisions such as the Food Safety Standards Act 2006 that establishes science-based standards for food items and regulate their production, storage, distribution, sale and import.
The domain of food safety standards revolves around two universal terms; Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) and Maximum Residue Limit (MRL).
ADI is the yardstick for pesticide risk management and determines the practical safe limit of residue that can be allowed on a daily basis over lifetime (based on mg/kg body mass).
The residue quantum is first decided through experimental animals and then dividing by a factor of 100 for humans.
Take the example of carbaryl, used to control many insects in almost all vegetable crops has an ADI of 0.008 mg/kg body wait of a consumer. This means a consumer with 60kg body wait can be safe only if (s)he consumes less than 0.008x60= 0.48mg on a daily basis over a lifetime.
Taking average life span as 60 years the safe limit over a lifetime for an average consumer is only about 1.05gms (60x365x0.48mg) for carbaryl.
The present debate is on for making it 1000 for children, as they are more susceptible. MRL on the other hand, is the maximum concentration of residues (of harmful substances) legally allowed in a food item. Practically MRL should be coherent with ADI.
