Plan for environment-friendly disposal of fake pesticides proposed

LAHORE: The Punjab Agriculture Department has suggested preparing an action plan for environment-friendly disposal of fake/adulterated pesticides confiscated during the raids, a statement said.

The pesticide anti-adulteration campaign is a regular feature; wherein, tonnes of adulterated and spurious pesticides are confiscated and dumped at various police stations as ‘Mal-Muqadama’.

The quantity of such confiscated adulterated pesticides remained 811,554kg/litre during the present calendar year, 202,807kg/litre during 2020, 315,164kg/litre during 2019 and 136,590.72kg/litre during 2017.

Officials said laying such pesticides in the open was causing serious health and environmental hazards.

“There is no incineration facility in the department for safe disposal of such pesticides to comply with the regulations and relevant international standards,” the officials said, adding that there were incidents of evaporation of confiscated pesticides.

There were also apprehensions of sale of confiscated stocks in the market, they said.

“[The] Department of Plant Protection Karachi and the Punjab government should prepare an action plan and install incinerators at suitable locations in the country. Such incinerators can be installed near Punjab-Sindh border and areas adjoining Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,” the officials said.

“Farmers have also raised this issue with the department and a proposal has been forwarded to the government for consideration,” they added.