Nagpur: Pesticide companies were seen making a pitch for safe handling of the chemicals at Agrovision Nagpur exhibition held at Reshimbagh grounds. The annual event for farmers is partitioned by union transport minister Nitin Gadkari. This year, it was inaugurated at the hands of vice-president Venkiah Naidu.
The companies which include MNCs drew flak after 42 persons died after pesticide spraying in Vidarbha. Majority of the deaths were in the cotton growing district of Yavatmal. Sources involved in organizing the event said, though pesticide makers take part in Agrovision Nagpur each year, this time there is a visible stress on safety.
The Crop Care Federation, an association of pesticide makers, too had its presence at Agrovision Nagpur. “We have been always taking part in the event, of course this time the presence is larger. There is a stress on safe and judicious use of pesticides. By judicious, it means using he right pesticide. There are crop specific pesticides, but farmers are known to be mixing different chemicals thinking that it would give better results,” said Harish Mehta an adviser in the Federation.
The federation also distributed free safety kits apart from some companies doing it individually too. Even Mehta stressed that the effort was not a fallout of the pesticide deaths. “It was already planned much in advance. Bookings for space in Agrovision were made six months ago and the planning is done at that time itself,” he said The Federation has held similar drives in Haryana, Punjab, Orissan and Assam too, said Mehta, who stressed inhalation does not kill.
Amid manufacturers talking about safe usage a Nashik-based company had come up with a spray pump mounted on a tractor. It safer because the operator is at a distance behind the steering wheel, said the firm’s executive at the exhibition.
