Regulating Pesticide Usage through Mobile Technology

What is the issue?

• In India there are reported cases of deaths due to excessive usage of pesticides.
• Use of technology will help the government to regulatethe usage of pesticides.

What are the incidents of deaths due to pesticide usage?

• In 2013, in Bihar, more than 20 school children lost their lives after consuming mid-day meal contaminated with a highly toxic pesticide.

• In India, the consumption of pesticides has shown an upward trend from approximately 14,000 metric tonnes in 1965 to close to 56,000 metric tonnes in 2014-15.
• Recently in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, more than 30 farmers and farm labourers have died due to pesticide poisoning.

What measures were taken to regulate pesticide usage?

• Government of India enacted the Insecticides Act, 1968, which regulates the import, manufacture, sale, transport and distribution and use of pesticides.
• The Insecticides Rules of 1971, made the pesticide containers mandatory to carry a specific colour mark which is associated with the toxic nature of the pesticide.
• The Pesticide Management Bill, 2008 was also proposed and pending in Parliament.
• Crop Pest Surveillance and Advisory Project has been initiated by the Maharashtra government in 2008.
• Regulations regarding basic educational qualifications of pesticide dealers were introduced in 2015.

What are the challenges in regulating pesticide usage?

• Farmers has poor awareness about the hazardous nature of the pesticide, farmers are often unaware of the implication of the colour codes or instructions in the pesticide containers.
• For the selection and application of pesticides, farmers rely heavily on the dealer for advice, such advices are driven by their economic interest rather than knowledge of pest control.
• In 2016 government exempted existing licensees who are more than 45 years old and who have pesticide dealership experience of more than 10 years, from educational qualification on pesticides.
• Non-genuine pesticides flood the market and sales of such products account for approximately 30 per cent of the volume of the domestic pesticide industry.

How technology can be used to regulate pesticide usage?

• Mobile technology can be roped in to develop a multi-purpose Pesticide Prescription and Transaction System (PPTS).
• The mobile number of the farmers need to be registered with the proposed PPTS and a prescription in the form of a unique reference number (URN) will be sent to the farmer by SMS.
• The URN will also serve as the prescription tracking number, the URN will be shared with the dealer who will validate the URN with the PPTS.
• The system will then generate a receipt along with details of prescription including the URN.
• For each transaction, the PPTS will also provide information about hazards and suggest safety measures to the farmer.
• The inbuilt traceability feature will also help to limit the selling of illegal and non-genuine pesticides.

Source: The Indian Express