Agri dept field offices may again recommend ban on five pesticides

Nagpur: With the pesticide spraying season set to start by month end, field offices of the state’s agriculture department are planning to again recommend a ban on the use of the five formulations which were found to be used by victims of inhalation deaths.
In 2017, the state saw a number of deaths due accidental inhalation of pesticides. Majority of the victims were farm labourers. Out of the around 80 deaths in 2017, Yavatmal had seen the highest toll. The deaths have continued even in the subsequent years.
A week ago, 46-year-old Durvas Hazare, a farmer from Kinhi Dhanoli village of Nagpur’s Hingna tehsil, fell unconscious after spraying. He was admitted to Wardha’s Shalintai Meghe Hospital where he died after five days. “Hospitals in Vidarbha start receiving such cases as the spraying season starts,” said the doctor in charge.
Dr SP Kalantri, the medical superintendent of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), also confirmed having come across a number accidental inhalation cases. Such patients are a regular scene in MGIMS, he said. Kalantri had also tweeted a picture of a farmer undergoing treatment as he wrote monocrotphos, a highly dangerous pesticide, is easily available in India though it is banned in 112 countries. Farmers commonly use it for suicides.
Monocrotophos is one of the five pesticides found in inhalation cases.
Gearing up for the season, the district administration in Yavatmal is also holding medical seminars to discuss similarities between symptoms of Covid and pesticide inhalation. In both the cases, patients need oxygen support.
After the deaths in 2017, five pesticide formulations—profefonos-cypermthrine, monocrotophos, profenil-imidachlopr, asataf and difenthiron have been banned from time to time by the state government. The ban, however, stays for two months. A permanent ban has to come from the Centre.
A senior agriculture department in Yavatmal said soon a fresh recommendation may be sent for banning the five formulations to prevent accidents.
Accidental inhalation of pesticide fumes during spraying leads to contact poisoning. This can also lead to deaths of farmers and farm hands being admitted to hospital for treatment. Many also survive as it is treatable.
Kishore Tiwari, chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalban Mission (VNSSM), a state government task force on agrarian crisis, said that those who have recovered from Covid are also being insisted to not take up pesticide spraying.
“There is already a protocol that persons taking up spraying work should have a medial fitness certificate first. As it includes lung functioning as a parameter, those having recovered from Covid would naturally not qualify for presitice spraying. The onus would be on the medical pracitioners giving the certificate to ascertain the facts,” said Tiwari.
Despite the ban, farmers prefer the five formulations, especially monocrotophos, because its easily available. The farm input dealers also push the same formulations, said sources.
Surendra Kothari, director of an agriculture produce marketing committee (APMC), at Hinganghat in Wardha, said farmers general go by what dealers recommend. They generally push the five formulations.