Putting away the toxic spray……..Sukhdeep Kaur
Stop indiscriminate use of pesticide on basmati, antibiotics on bees: Exporters to farmers, beekeepers
A school dropout, 28-year-old Simarjeet Singh Aulakh from Punjabs Faridkot district now gives lessons in beekeeping. One of the four farmers from Punjab to be honoured by the Union Agriculture Ministry this year, Aulakh started off with two bee boxes in 1992 and is now a successful entrepreneur with as many as 150 bee boxes. He is presently planning to export honey. Aulakh has been long been practising what exporters are now teaching bee farmers in the state clean bee colonies do not need antibiotics.
With Punjabs main exports coming under scrutiny in Europe for alleged higher than permissible residue level of pesticide in Basmati and antibiotics in honey, exporters are now cautious.
Countrys largest honey exporter, Ludhiana-based Kashmir Apiaries, has an SOS helpline number for its 15,000-odd farmers across the country. Farmers use antibiotics to destroy mites that attack bee colonies. But its residue also comes in honey. Though we have hi-tech labs to check every export consignment so that there is no trace of antibiotic residue, at the same time we are holding regular seminars for farmers to highlight the harmful effects of antibiotics. We have a group of 25 scientists to educate beekeepers about organic sprays for dealing with mites and techniques such as drone killing method which can prevent the need to spray antibiotics in bee colonies, says Sehzada Singh, son of Jagjit Singh Kapoor, CMD, Kashmir Apiaries. The SOS service of the company, which recorded a turnover of Rs 220 crore last year from exports to 48 countries worldwide, helps farmers reach experts at its beekeeping institute in hours of crisis. Their basic lesson for all prevention is the only cure when it comes to exports.
The other major export from the state, basmati, too, is witnessing a similar movement, through a wider network of exporters across Punjab and Haryana, which together produced 75 per cent of countrys total basmati last year. The rice exporters associations from both the states have issued advisory against indiscriminate use of pesticides on the crop through pamphlets distributed to farmers, commission agents and rice millers.
Though the All India Rice Exporters Association has contested the findings of a Hamburg-based lab it had reported that certain basmati samples from India had higher than permissible maximum residue level (MRL) of pesticide on grounds of use of procedures/ protocols not officially validated, it has taken the first precautionary step back home: warning farmers of Punjab and Haryana against the use of pesticide once the grain reaches the stage of penicle formation.
While describing the norms of European authorities as arbitrary and inconsistent with regards to its own produce and imports, All India Rice Exporters Association president Vijay Setia said, The government is supporting us on this as the reports of the private German lab do not conform to validated procedures. But we do have concerns about agricultural practises in the two states.
As part of the advisory, the exporters have asked growers to follow certain practices for basmati after consulting agricultural universities in Punjab, Haryana and Meerut. Though the universities have told farmers what to do when a disease is detected, there is no preventive advisory for them. For instance, if pesticide is sprayed after formation of grain, it settles in the milk of the grain and its residue can be detected even in next two to three years. Otherwise, the effect of the spray wanes in sunlight within 10 to 20 days.
Punjab Agriculture Director B S Sidhu said the department has got 60 samples of states most widely grown basmati variety, Pusa 1121, tested for presence of pesticides and no sample was found to have pesticide content higher than the permissible MRL.
As for honey, it is turning out to be not-so-sweet proposition for many small farmers. I make Rs 2.5 lakh a year from honey but if the weather conditions are cold and foggy and mite attacks too bad, the returns dwindle. Also, we have to either contend with poor prices from exporters or sell directly to shops or at fairs. There were 27-28 farmers like me who did beekeeping in the district. Now we are just three, says Aulakh.