Use of toxic herbicide Glyphosate increases

Amid the debate over imposing a complete ban on the use of the weed-killing herbicide glyphosate, a report by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) India, a pesticide watch NGO, states that there is an increase in its use across the country.

Glyphosate stood at the second position in production and consumption among herbicides. The data for production and consumption also shows a huge difference and little information is available on its export.

The field study by PAN that was conducted in seven states — Telangana state, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu — reports the use of 24 different brands of three formulations based on glyphosate. Glyphosate-based herbicide products are also sold in areas where the crop for which it has been approved is not grown.

In Telangana state, where the use and sale is restricted until the end of the Kharif season, activists have suggested that there is increasing illegal sale and use by farmers, despite the government orders, and a suspected political nexus.
“Bigger cotton farmers, especially in Mancherial, by using manual labour but no protective gear, use glyphosate extensively, because they think that it is more economical for them than going through other processes of deweeding their crops,” said Sreeharsha T, activist with the Rythu Swarajya Vedika.

Narasimha Reddy Donthi, director of Pesticides Action Network-India added that the unrestricted access and wider availability of glyphosate-based herbicides and poor pesticide poisoning monitoring has contributed to unreported or unrecognised occupational poisoning or self-poisoning.

“Most farmers who spray the toxic herbicide on their own or get manual labour to do so do not consider the related-safety hazards. When they are rushed to hospital and poisoning is reported, due to differences in technical pronounciation or similar issues, most of these cases don’t get reported as poisoning due to glyphosate. Hence the data is difficult to be collaborated.”

The study by PAN India states that the majority of farmers and workers interviewed did not have training on glyphosate application, safety precautions, and use of personal protection kits (PPE). Moreover, none of the farmers or workers reported use of PPE while working  with glyphosate or working in fields sprayed with glyphosate; rather some of them reported use of a cloth, hat, mask, glove, goggles of poor quality as safety measures.  

The unintended use of glyphosate reported in the study raises serious concerns over residues in  food commodities, food safety, agriculture trade, and environmental contamination, as well as the consequent short and long-term health and environmental impacts. The level and extent of contamination in food commodities remains unknown, according to the findings of the report.

The NGO has recommended that the Union agriculture and farmers welfare ministries immediately take measures to phase out production and usage of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides. State agriculture departments should take measures to stop sales and usage of glyphosate subject to the nationally approved uses of glyphosate.