MAHARASHTRA: DEATH BY PESTICIDE
Farmers fall prey to unauthorised pesticides—and state apathy
The death of 32 farmers from pesticide poisoning in the Vidarbha region has cast a shadow on Diwali this year. It’s the Devendra Fadnavis government’s latest challenge in an area already known for the highest number of farmer suicides.
Yavatmal, with 21 pesticide deaths, is the worst affected district while cases have also been reported from Akola, Nagpur, Bhandara, Amravati and Buldhana. Twenty-three of some 800 farmers under treatment in district hospitals have lost their eyesight. All have tested positive for pesticide contamination. A concerned state government has ordered an inquiry to determine if pesticide companies had sold farmers ‘unauthorised’ products. As per regulation, all pesticides and fertilisers must be tested in government laboratories before being marketed. Further, state agriculture officials must train farmers on correct usage. However, farmers often go by the advice of local Krishi Seva Kendras run by private shopkeepers.
Amravati’s BJP legislator Anil Bonde accuses agriculture department staff of not doing their job in training cultivators on pesticide usage. Former Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has also raised questions on whether the pesticides in use were properly tested.
Alarmed at the rising death toll, state agriculture minister Pandurang Phundkar said the government would “cancel licences of Krishi Seva Kendras found selling unauthorised products”. Junior agriculture minister Sadashiv Khot promised that presiding officials will be held accountable. Opposition leaders did criticise the Fadnavis government, but it faced more serious censure from within. Kishor Tiwari, president of the staterun corporation Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swabhimaan Mission, described the Vidarbha deaths as a “massacre”. He accused the agriculture department officials of accepting bribes to approve untested and unsafe pesticides.
The unfolding tragedy has raised questions on Bt cotton cultivation, which requires multiple applications of pesticide. “This year, farmers had to spray 10 times more pesticide [than non-Bt varieties] to control the pests,” says an official from Nagpur’s Central Institute for Cotton Research. Yet to deliver on his promised farm loan waiver, Fadnavis announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh each on October 3 for the families of victims. He has also directed the distribution of protective masks among farmers besides constituting a committee headed by additional chief secretary Sudhir Shrivastava to determine the reasons for the deaths.