Talking about “To feed the world” Agriculture sectors flashes into our minds. Well it is crystal clear that Agriculture feeds the world. And I have also heard in one of the conferences held to provoke the sustainability of Agriculture that “if you feed, you are directly or indirectly involved in Agriculture”. In old ages the farmers used to cure the crop using plant oils or some plant extracts. Then these curing agents were replaced by some elemental pesticides like arsenic, hydrogen cyanide. These elements were quite toxic to every other species but insects. Soon it was replaced by chlorinated hydrocarbons one of the best suited example would be DDT ( Dicholoro Diphenyle trichloroethane).DDT showed the excellent results against a vast variety of insects due to its broad spectrum. But despite the fact that it had an extensive amount of residual effects it was kept on spraying for a knock down controlling results. In 1962 an author named Rachel Carson wrote a book “Silent Springs” which compelled the scientists to cast a gaze on the harmful aspect of this pesticide. She mentioned that this massive use of DDT affected the wildlife, freshwater life, domestic animals and even humans. She titled the insecticide the POISON. It was soon unveiled that DDT really was a threat to other organisms. The soils sprayed with DDT 40 years ago even have the traces of it in present age too. Farmers spray their crops one day and the very next day it is available in market. Along with the food we are taking daily dosage of insecticides in us with an unknown amount of poison. This is why the rate of physiological disorders has been increased. Insecticides have carcinogenic effects which causes cancer, birth defects, infertility, endocrine system failure, fetal complication to the child bearing women. In environment it results in water pollution, soil contamination, reduces nitrogen fixation, pollinator decline, threatens endangered species and reduces biodiversity. It is time to urge the scientists to pay heed towards the formulation of insecticides which have low residual pollutions, safety for non-targeted organisms and a less durational half-life.
written by .
1Ubaidullah
Msc(Hons) Agri. Entomology
Email: [email protected]
University college of Agriculture University of Sargodha’ Sargodha
2Hamza Bin Riaz
BSc(Hons) Soil & Environmental Sciences
Email: [email protected]
University college of Agriculture University of Sargodha’ Sargodha
