Peshin Rajinder, Hansra Baljeet S, Nanda Rakesh, Singh Kuldeep, Sharma Rakesh, Garg Lavleesh, Bajiya Mangla R, Showkat Abid, Kumar Raj, Yangsdon Stanzin
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Chatha, Jammu, 180009, India.
Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, Noida, 201313, India.
Environ Manage. 2020 Nov;66(5):899-915. doi: 10.1007/s00267-020-01317-1. Epub 2020 Jun 24.
The pesticide use in Indian agriculture showed a declining trend in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2007, pesticide use gained an upward trend. To study the pesticide use pattern and identify pesticide hotspots, we collected data from a sample of 1201 apple, rice, vegetable, and cotton growers from the temperate Kashmir Valley, subtropical Jammu, and Punjab. Our study provided some interesting empirical results: prophylactic pesticide applications in apple crop making it a pesticide guzzler [25.2 kg of active ingredient (ai)/ha] with use of riskiest carcinogen pesticides (9 kg of a.i/ha) and field use environmental impact quotient (FEIQ) (620.4/ha) being the highest, the Kashmir Valley is the "pesticide hottest spot", followed by cotton and rice areas of Punjab and vegetable cultivation in Jammu subtropics. Pesticides banned for use in vegetables, such as monocrotophos were also applied by farmers in vegetable crops. However, rice areas in Kashmir and Jammu were only treated with herbicides. The protective measures taken by farmers while mixing and applying pesticides were primitive, resulting in localized mild/moderate pesticide poisoning besides loss of consciousness. We also found that the official data on the pesticide use are underreported and hence unreliable. Our study shows that neither the pesticide use by mass nor the pesticide use frequency, in combination or alone, is the robust indicator to measure the pesticide hazardous hotspots; besides these, FEIQ and less hazardous pesticides that are not probable or possible carcinogen should be rather used in conjunction.
20世纪90年代末至21世纪初，印度农业中的农药使用呈下降趋势。自2007年以来，农药使用呈上升趋势。为了研究农药使用模式并确定农药热点地区，我们从克什米尔山谷温带地区、查谟亚热带地区和旁遮普邦的1201名苹果、水稻、蔬菜和棉花种植者样本中收集了数据。我们的研究得出了一些有趣的实证结果：苹果作物预防性使用农药使其成为农药消耗大户[活性成分（ai）25.2千克/公顷]，使用了风险最高的致癌农药（ai 9千克/公顷），田间使用环境影响商数（FEIQ）（620.4/公顷）最高，克什米尔山谷是“农药热点地区”，其次是旁遮普邦的棉花和水稻种植区以及查谟亚热带地区的蔬菜种植区。农民还在蔬菜作物上使用了如久效磷等被禁止用于蔬菜的农药。然而，克什米尔和查谟的水稻种植区仅使用除草剂。农民在混合和施用农药时采取的防护措施很原始，除了导致意识丧失外，还造成了局部轻度/中度农药中毒。我们还发现，官方公布的农药使用数据存在漏报情况，因此不可靠。我们的研究表明，无论是农药使用量还是农药使用频率，单独或综合起来，都不是衡量农药危险热点地区的可靠指标；除此之外，应结合使用FEIQ和不太可能或不可能致癌的低危害农药。
