Don’t use excessive pesticides, PM tells farmers:Daily Sun

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at Bangabandhu National Agriculture Award ceremony at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on Saturday. PID Photo Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday urged farmers not to use excessive pesticides in their croplands as those reduce the fertility of land alongside destroying the local species of fish in wetlands, reports UNB. “We’ll have to reduce the pe
sticide use any how,” she said stressing the need for sing ‘parching’ and ‘ferroman’ tactics instead of using pesticides in farmlands. Parching is an indigenous method to trap birds for eating insects from the crop sitting on sticks put up in the filed beforehand that helps farmers use less pesticide, while Ferroman is another mode for killing insects from the croplands setting lights at various points with trays filled with mixed soap water under each light to allure insects coming towards it, causing sinking and death to them. The Prime Minister was distributing the Bangabandhu National Agriculture Award among 30 recipients at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital. Hasina called on the farmers to be more cautious and judicious while using pesticides in their croplands for tackling the insects that cause harm to their crops. “The excessive use of pesticides not only reduces the land fertility, but also causes harm to various local species of fish in wetlands.” “We have to reduce the usage of pesticides by increasing the usage of integrated pest management (IPM) in the crop fields,” the Prime Minister said. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a broad-based approach that integrates practices for economic control of pests. To reduce the waste of water in irrigation, Hasina requested the farmers to use pipes while irrigating their croplands in addition to using solar-based irrigation pumps as it will reduce the dependence on traditional electricity-run pumps. “We’re now providing subsidy for irrigation…if you use the solar irrigation pumps it will reduce your dependency on electricity,” she added. The Prime Minister also emphasised the use of balanced fertiliser in the fields reducing the dependence on urea fertiliser. “I think, we’ll have to increase the use of DAP (Di-Ammonium Phosphate) and MOP (Muriate of Potash) fertilisers and reduce the use of urea fertiliser,” she said adding that DAP fertiliser has urea and phosphate both in it. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon the agriculture scientists to innovate newer techniques of producing more crops from limited land as the country’s arable lands are dwindling fast. She asked the farmers to utilise every inch of the land to produce food for the huge population since farmlands are shrinking for various reasons, including the construction of new dwelling houses, mills and factories and river erosion. Terming her government a farmer-friendly one, the Prime Minister said during the last six years it has provided about Tk 43,266 crore to farmers through providing seeds, fertilisers, irrigation facility, fuel, and other agricultural inputs available for them. “Hence, the country achieved self-sufficiency in food, while the production cost has come down, improving the lifestyle of people.” As a result of various farmer-friendly steps taken by her government, Hasina said, the country’s food production has risen to 3.83 crore metric tonnes last year from 2.79 crore mts in 2006-2007. “For the first time, the coarse rice is being exported to Sri Lanka apart from the export of aromatic one.” She said her government during its previous term (1996-2001) first allocated funds for agriculture research and in 2009-2013 increased the allocation manifold, resulting in innovation of various high-yielding varieties, salinity, drought and submergence tolerant paddy. She said the government has taken an initiative to boost agricultural activities in the hills, chars, haors and coastal areas due to the country’s typical geographical conditions and climate change impacts. Hasina said her government along with building up a food reserve for contingency is working to ensure balanced food with proper nutrition for all. Besides, she called for the use of surface water instead of groundwater for irrigation as water level is depleting fast due to indiscriminate irrigation. Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Fisheries and Livestock Minister Sayeedul Haq also spoke at the programme.