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New Delhi, Dec 1: The pesticide industry claimed that chemical agriculture has a definite role to play in food and nutritional security. This is notwithstanding the prevailing grave concern over contamination of food with pesticide residues.
The chairman of the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), Rajju Shroff, speaking to FE at the sidelines of a seminar said: “India needs to continue with the use of chemical pesticides to feed millions of people. The reports of contamination of food with pesticide residues are highly exaggerated.” He said even went to the extent of claiming there is no harmful effect of DDT in any scientific literature.”
A two-day national symposium on ‘Pesticides : Myths, Realities and Remedies’ is being jointly organised by the Society of Pesticide Science, India (SPSI) and the industry body, CCFI from December 1 in New Delhi.
A number of foreign representatives are also participating in the seminar.
Notable ones being Dr Dennis T Avery, director of the US-based Hudson Institute Centre for Global Food Issue, Dr Chistopher Relchmuth from Germany, Dr Patrick Docum from France and Dr BBS Khamay from UK.
Dr Avery in his presentation chose to counter some prevailing views which he termed as ‘myths’.
He said that these myths are - DDT causes cancer and the eggshells of birds, pesticides are dangerous to wildlife, chemical agriculture is unsustainable, and that high-yield seeds destroy natural biodiversity.
Speaking to FE, the president of the SPSI, Dr DB Saxena said: “Chemical pesticides will have a definite role to play in ensuring food and nutrional security in the days to come. Biopesticides like Avermectins, Bt and Neem are not available in large quantities to meet the needs. Chemical pesticides can be safe if they are sprayed at recommended intervals and doses. This needs to be monitored. Most important is fixing the period between the last spray and the harvest. There is a need to fix the minimum residue levels (MRLs) and acceptable dietary intake (ADIs) in relation to all pesticides in use.”
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