Rajju Shroff, Chairman, Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), who was the chief guest at the Health Conclave, said that in India, the future of Indian agriculture is “very bright”. Citing latest data from UN agencies, he said India has emerged as the second largest in agricultural production. In terms of value, India produces double than that of USA that once supplied food grains to India to tide over acute shortages. He attributed this phenomenal success to Indian farmers who work hard round the year producing a variety of crops
Speaking at the occasion, Shroff said: “Though India has many pessimists, I am very optimistic. The stories about farmers making indiscriminate use of pesticides are not supported by facts. Such stories come from foreign funded activists, he said. The USA, countries in the European Union, though produce much less in agriculture compared to India, consume 700% to 800% more pesticides . Besides being leading consumers of pesticides, they are large producers and exporters of pesticides in the world, he observed.
According to him, the stories about farmers’ suicides in India are highly exaggerated. Out of total suicides in India farmers suicides account for about 10% and the rest 90% are by non-farmers-, mainly in urban India. The suicides in rural India have little to do with farming, he said.“
He said India now has better infrastructure, roads, power and water “and therefore I am confident that the future of agriculture in India is very bright”.
Shroff said the exports will double in the days to come and so will the income of farmers. “It is not difficult. If you want to bring prosperity in rural areas, if you want to remove hunger and poverty, nothing but only agriculture can do that. The future is very bright. If hurdles are removed, people of India will get better opportunities and jobs.”
The focus in agriculture must shift to increasing farm exports .Traditionally , the attention remains confined to increasing the production. Agriculture must be recognised as a commercial enterprise, Mr.Shroff said. We must lift our agricultural exports to $ 100 bn by 2022. This is very much possible.
Mr.Shroff emphatically said that recommended uses of registered pesticides do not cause adverse health or environmental effects
- Ganesan, Advisor, CCFI, gave a detailed presentation on “Facts About Indian Agriculture, Pesticide Use: Myths and Realities” during the conclave. He explained how the agricultural production has structurally changed since 2000. The output of horticultural products and milk now outweigh the food grains production, he said giving out impressive data in support.
He also asserted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not listed any pesticides in its Group I carcinogen. The Group I carcinogens are known to be human carcinogens. The Group I list of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) contains 120 substances confirmed to be carcinogenic to humans. These include alcohol, tobacco, arecanut, X-ray, processed red meat, coal tar etc. But there is not a single pesticide on this list.
Citing data from WHO, Mr.S.Ganesan said India ranks as low as 175th in cancer incidence in the world that has about 200 countries.. Australia, New Zealand , Ireland, Hungary and USA are the top five countries with very high incidences of cancers in the world..
He also said that contrary to the popular perception, Punjab ranks much lower- 24th– in India in cancer incidences among all the states in India . The North Eastern States in India such as Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim that hardly use chemical fertilizers and pesticides lead in cancer incidences.
He said that many pharmaceutical drugs are more toxic than pesticides. As an example, he said that Asprin’s oral toxicity is much more than many agricultural pesticides. He emphasized the need for increased awareness of scientific facts about agro chemicals and urged the audience to go by authentic facts from primary sources rather than believing fabricated information spread by the vested interests.
He also observed that WHO has not listed pesticide as a cause for chronic kidney diseases.