While the worst farmer suicides in Odisha in 2015 were nature-driven, the 2017 version of farmer suicides across the State is triggered by man-made factors, according to field studies.
The studies reveal the trap for the current farm distress was laid by nature when in most of the time during October high humidity was a phenomenon in the State and later the unseasonal rain led to high waterlogging in paddy fields leading to the menace of pest called BPH (Brown Plant Hopper). But proper agro extension services by the Agriculture Department could have saved the day for the farmers in districts like Ganjam, Baragarh, Nuapada and Balangir, where the BPH has almost acquired an epidemic proportion resulting in widespread crop loss and torching of farm fields by farmers.
How could the menace have been avertedIJ According to a senior OUAT scientist, failure of genuine pesticides in affected areas owes to lack of ventilation and adequate sunlight exposure to the paddy fields. Proper extension services from the Agriculture Department like compelling farmers in such districts to build alleys in east-west direction to drain out excess water and thereby should have ensured proper exposure of paddy fields to sunlight, which could then curbed the BPH epidemic.
“Damp, waterlogged fields would nullify the effect of genuine BPH pesticides like Buprofrezin,” he observed and added that in certain instances farmers have also mixed this pesticide with kerosene oil, instead of neem oil, which then had an adverse impact in controlling the BPH menace.
Significantly, farmers in the affected districts like Bargarh have complained about the menace to the nearest agriculture extension offices but to no avail, said a farmer, Krupa Bhoi.
Moreover, with debate now raging on substandard pesticides and when the Agriculture Department is conducting raids to collect samples to identify spurious, misbranded or substandard pesticides in circulation in affected districts, the revelation is that in 2016-17, the State has recorded the highest proportion of misbranded pesticides in circulation in the country.
Sample this: As per the data available with the Agriculture Department, Odisha has recorded a whopping around 8.8 per cent of analysed sampled pesticides as misbranded. In contrast, the average for the country stood at mere 2.5 per cent. Of a total of 262 samples, 23 were analysed as misbranded. The data further revealed that since 2012 to 2015, the misbranded proportion in Odisha has averaged at a high of 12 per cent, but prosecution against the manufacturers in the last few years has been nil.
These facts reveal why the national average has dropped to a mere 2.5 per cent in 2016-17 from a high of around 12 per cent in 2012-15 whereas Odisha’s position was marginally down to around 9 per cent to top the nation.
As per the Insecticide Act 1968, misbranded pesticide is the one whose label gives misleading facts about its manufacturer’s registration, mismatch in expiry and manufacturing dates, incorrect warning, design and statement, etc.