Nauni/Solan: Aiming to develop protocols for the safe use of pesticides by recommending good agricultural practices, based on the multi-locational supervised field trial, eminent Agri scientist Prof Rajeshwar Singh Chandel has cautioned the use of unauthorized pesticides by farmers and advised to align research work to meet the future challenges.
Prof. Chandel, in the 30th Annual Review Meeting of All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues at Dr. YS Parmar, University of Horticulture & Forestry, Nauni, said
“Even though the country is ranked low in the average use of pesticides, it is time that we need to have a relook at this average. The Prime Minister has repeatedly stressed the need to find an alternative solution to chemical-based farming, as the current technique has depleted the quality of soil and water.”
Lauding the work of 18 centres across India in generating quality data for ensuring food safety, Prof Chandel suggested increasing the samples of milk from Himachal for analysis through students as the feed was largely coming from other states.
“Centers under AINP on PR should enlarge their areas of research under the mandate of the ICAR and the project and collect samples from the fields of farmers practising natural farming to study the residue analysis.” Prof. Chandel further added.
Prof. Chandel cautioned that unauthorized pesticides and mixed compounds were posing a big challenge as farmers were applying different chemicals in a short period. He called upon the scientists to align their work with future challenges and work in convergence with other departments.
