Fake, substandard pesticides: Punjab government launches special campaign

The Punjab government has decided to launch a special campaign for the eradication of fake and substandard pesticides from the province. The government has finalised a strategy in this regard in consultation with all the stakeholders, said Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Convener Pesticide Sub-Committee, Asif Manzoor Mohal while presiding over a high level meeting here on Wednesday.
The meeting was convened on the special directives of the chief minister of Punjab to ensure eradication of substandard pesticides from the province.
Secretary Agriculture Punjab, Arif Nadeem briefed the participants of the meeting about agricultural pesticide ordinance and said that the main objective of the movement against substandard pesticides was to ensure access of quality pesticides to growers. He informed the meeting that 267 pesticides inspectors have authority to inspect samples of pesticide under the 1971 pesticide ordinance. He also informed that 2209 agricultural pesticides were sampled till April 2011 in the province. Out of which 76 samples were found substandard and 16 people were arrested.
He said that the police conducted 25 raids this year under the campaign against substandard and fake pesticides and recovered 7316 kilogram/liter of pesticides worth Rs 973,000. The secretary agriculture also told the participants of the meeting that sale of fake pesticides had decreased drastically due to this campaign. He said adulteration in agricultural pesticides was 8.46 percent in year 2008, which had reduced to 2.67 percent as a result of this campaign.
The meeting decided to set up monitoring committees at division, district and tehsil level and also decided to keep a vigil on the performance of field staff by the sub-committee at all these levels. The meeting observed that provision of quality pesticides to growers would ensure plant protection thus increasing the per acre yield.
Ali Asghar Munda, Shahid Bhatti, Ijaz Ichhlana (MPAs), Secretary Agriculture Arif Nadeem, Sahibzada Shahzad Sultan AIG (Operations), Syed Tahir Raza Hamdani Additional Secretary Information, Dr Anjum Ali Director General (Extension), Dr Noor-ul-Islam Director General (Research), Malik Muhammad Fayyaz Director General (Pest warning and Quality Control), representative of Pakistan Crop Protection Association, pesticide dealers and representatives of growers' organisations also attended the meeting.