‘IPM key to sustainable Baru warns MPs of underhand tactics in RUU355 saga agriculture, quality food production’
KUCHING: Integrated pest management ( IPM) has an important role in sustainable agriculture and quality food production.
The president of V Sivaram Research Foundation, Professor Dr Sivaram Venkatarame Gowda of India said IPM provides maximum economic yields to the farmer, while improving or maintaining the production site and protecting the environment.
He said the procedures to improve economic yields while reducing inputs include the integration of pesticides with cultural techniques for disease control; and biological, behavioral and environmental control of pests.
“The biological and biotechnological control methods especially have a vital importance as the alternatives to chemical control in integrated pest management,” he said at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Emerging Trends in Integrated Pest and Disease Management for Food Quality Production (IPMFP) and International Conference on Virus Disease ( ICVD) here recently.
Dr Sivaram said biotechnology promises to have a major impact on IPM through the use of recombinant DNA techniques to genetically engineer microbes for the control of diseases, insects and weeds while generating plants to resist insects, pathogens, and herbicides.
He hailed IPM as an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices.
IPM programmes, he added, use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment.
“This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, with the least possible hazard to people, property and the environment.
“The IPM approach can be applied to both agricultural and non-agricultural settings such as the home, garden, and workplace. The IPM takes advantage of all appropriate pest management options including, but not limited to the judicious use of pesticides,” he said.
He noted that in contrast, organic food production applies many of the same concepts as IBM but limits the use of pesticides to those produced from natural sources, as opposed to synthetic chemicals.
IPM is not a single pest control method but, rather, a series of pest management evaluations, decisions and controls, he added. KUCHING: State PKR chairman Baru Bian has urged all MPs to remain alert on the possibility of ‘an ambush in the wee hours of the morning’ to amend the Syariah Courts ( Criminal Jurisdiction) Act, or RUU355.
Baru, who is Ba Kelalan assemblyman, said although it is uncertain whether debate on the Bill will resume at this Parliamentary session, the RUU355 has appeared on the list of the Order paper.
“The Speaker has shown himself to be capable of such underhanded tactics, and he may well be called upon to carry out a repeat performance. Whether the Bill is debated or not, the actors involved and past episodes have shown without any doubt that Umno is working hand in glove with PAS in this play,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
Baru noted that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s announcement that Umno would take over the Bill, then backpeddling on it, and the fast-tracking of Hadi’s Private Member’s Bill after the marathon all- night Parliamentary sitting the night before was clear indication that Umno was playing it both ways and hedging its bets.
“Do the other BN coalition parties wonder what Umno’s stand really is? On such a crucial issue, they surely want an answer from Umno, but we know from past experiences that Umno leaders are experts at flip- flopping and nothing they say can be taken at face value.
“The fact that Umno is using RUU355 as a political tool is telling of their agenda. They do not care that their ambivalence towards RUU355 and hudud emboldens the religious extremists to be even more bold and outrageous.
“The perception is that the government is on their side as the leaders have failed to make a strong stand on this issue. What this country needs is a strong government to declare that hudud has no place in our democratic and secular country. Sadly for us, there is little hope that Najib Razak will have the courage to take this stand.”
Baru said what PAS refuses to acknowledge is the undeniable fact that the foundation of this country was never hudud.
“Islam was made the official religion for ceremonial purposes but the intention was that Malaysia be secular, with religious freedom for all. It is unwise to allow hudud issues to be raised as it has caused unease and worry for non-Muslim communities in Malaysia, particularly in Sarawak and Sabah.
“Hudud or Syariah law was never in the minds of our forefathers when the idea of Malaysia was mooted and eventually carried out. In fact, the absence of an official religion and freedom of religion for Sabah and Sarawak were two points given high prominence in the discussion and the subsequent Malaysia Agreement.”
He asked Malaysians not be fooled into believing that hudud or Syariah laws will only apply to Muslims as the news portals abound with instances where Islamic practices were imposed on non-Muslims.
“Take for example the recent marathon in Kelantan where the Council required a segregation of the male and female participants of the event. The most glaring of these incidences are the instances of forced conversions, unilateral conversions, body-snatching and the difficulties in conversions out of Islam.”
Baru said despite Najib’s trumpeting of Malaysia as a model moderate Muslim country, the reality is that the country is slowly but surely becoming a country where religious and racial intolerance is increasing and religious extremism growing.
“While it is not obvious yet in Sarawak and Sabah, we are not isolated from West Malaysia. Unconsciously such prejudices may trickle in and take root and if unchecked, will destroy the society and nation as we know it now.
“The need to fight against religious extremism and racial intolerance must not be taken lightly – many of us have family and friends working, living and studying in West Malaysia. What happens there affects us all.”
Baru said it is unfortunate that Malaysia lacks the strong and firm voices in this current regime to uphold the rights of all of her citizens and to affi rm and fulfil the terms of the Malaysia Agreement.
“I therefore applaud our Muslim friends and leaders such as Mariam Mokhtar, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, the members of G25, Nik Elin Nik Rashid, Siti Kassim, scholars such as Professor Dr Shad Faruqi and many more for their outspoken defence of a truly free, democratic and secular Malaysia, often at the expense of their personal safety.”
The biological and biotechnological control methods especially have a vital importance as the alternatives to chemical control in integrated pest management. Professor Dr Sivaram Venkatarame Gowda, V Sivaram Research Foundation president