AMARAVATI: With agriculture activity picking up across the state due to good rains, the demand for regulated herbicides too has picked up. The state is likely to witness close to Rs 400 crore of herbicides sale during the current season. What’s, however, worrying is the laxity on the part of agriculture department officials to regulate the sale, due to which dealers are openly selling stocks, thereby causing damage to the health of humans as well as the environment.
Though Andhra Pradesh is the first state in the country to have issued orders to regulate the sale of herbicides, the restriction is applicable only during the non-crop season.
The Centre had, in fact, issued a draft notification to regulate the sale of about 27 ‘dangerous’ herbicides and chemical pesticides last July. After giving 30 days time for filing of objections and suggestions, the deadline was extended by another two months and expired in October 2020. However, the Centre is yet to issue a final notification to regulate sale of herbicides, which seems to have encouraged its manufacturers to make a killing when the demand peaks.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the highest consumers of chemical herbicides and pesticides in the country, with herbicides alone accounting for over Rs 300 crore of the sale proceeds during the kharif season. Pesticide dealers even push some banned products of glyphosate to farmers who use them as weed remover.
“It is high time both the state and central governments ban the sale of herbicides which are posing a threat to the life of humans and animals while also affecting the environment,” Padma awardee farmer and Rythu Nestham chairman Yadlapalli Venkateswara Rao says, adding that the agriculture department should conduct frequent inspections to at least prevent the sale of banned pesticides.
Sources said some dealers are importing banned stocks from Karnataka and selling them at a premium of 100 per cent. Some products which cost around Rs 300 per litre in Karnataka are being sold at double the price in AP. “The dealers are making huge profits and are misleading the farmers,” alleged BJP’s Kisan cell leader YV Subbarao. He further claimed that the sale of glyphosate is rampant in Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Ananthapuram and Kurnool districts.
