Use pesticides with restraint, farmers told

KLUANG: Farmers have been reminded not to take the easy way to increase production by using excessive chemicals as it will affect the country’s export sector, said Agriculture and Agro- based Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub.

He said such methods would “kill” export opportunities of other agriculture products.

“We cannot defend our products if our own farmers use harmful chemicals. And we will act similarly like Singapore if any of the agriculture products that we import go against our own guidelines,” he said after launching the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) Johor 2018 open day here yesterday.

His advice follows news reports that iceberg lettuce from a Malaysian farm had been recalled by authorities in Singapore after high levels of the pesticide Fipronil were found in them.

Fipronil is used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks on animals.

Referring to this recall, Salahuddin said that it should be taken as a lesson.

“I do not think that we should take the shorter way to ‘beautify’ our products by using more poisons,” he said.

“We should adhere to guidelines set by countries that import our agriculture produce because if we do not, then it will harm opportunities for others that want to market their products overseas,” he said.

On Saturday, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore had issued a recall of the iceberg lettuce after it detected high levels of pesticide in the vegetable imported from Malaysia.

He also said that from 2017 to July this year, 5,297 samples of vegetables and fruits were taken from the local markets for analysis.

The results showed that 97 of the samples (1.8%) were found to contain pesticide residues exceeding the maximum residue limit.