Farmers to be trained on their legal responsibility towards farm workers

Nagpur: Apart from training on safe usage of pesticides, the government will also be starting a drive for sensitizing farmers on their legal responsibility towards farm workers. If a farmer is using a pesticide himself then the safety norms do not apply on him. However, if a farm worker is engaged by him then the same farmer comes under the category of an operator as per the insecticide act. The operator is fully responsible for the worker's safety.

The fact will now be emphasized in the campaign to be starting in the villages. Drives will be conducted by agriculture department telling the land owners that they cannot leave farm workers to exposed to any risk.

Since they are engaged in their farms, their safety will be the farmers' responsibility, said the state's principal secretary (agriculture) Bijay Kumar.

"The whole idea is to ensure that the poorest of the poor is not left neglected. The landless labourers are among the unprotected class. Farmers as well as their employers should also understand this," he said.

The safety gear will also be distributed to the farmers. However, apart from that, the farmers will be also briefed about symptoms and action to be taken a case of poisoning is seen.

Teams of agriculture department will also be touring the hinterland to take samples of pesticides. This is to ensure that content in the packets is same as printed in the literature. There are chances that actual content may be different and of a more potent combination. Farmers may be included to use the new types of mixes by promising better impact, said the officer.

Traders will be prevented from pushing sales of any pesticide which is not recommended for a given crop by the agriculture universities.

Meanwhile, medical colleges treating patients of pesticide poisoning have been issued instructions by directorate of medical education and research (DMER), that if the symptoms continue despite a negative report in the blood test, the treatment should go on.

Dr Pravin Shingare, the director (education) told TOI that the objective is to rule out any chances. Medical colleges may not be having the facility to point out all the types of poisons in the blood leading to a negative report. The colleges have also been asked to send repeat samples outside in such cases, but the charges will not be borne by the patient's relatives said Shingare.

In a nutshell

Farmers will be briefed about action to be taken if there is a case of pesticide poisoning

Information to be given on symptoms too

Teams will test samples of pesticides to see if the content is same as claimed by the manufacturer