Controlling pesticide residues on vegetables: Still open

(Baonghean) -With over 150 hectares of vegetable land, Nam Anh (Nam Dan) vegetables, in addition to being consumed in the district, are mainly sold widely to the market of Vinh City and neighboring districts. However, controlling chemical residues on vegetables is an "open" issue here. This is also the common situation in most vegetable growing areas in the province.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hung, hamlet 6, Nam Anh commune, has 1.5 hectares of cabbage mixed with corn. According to him, when growing vegetables, pesticides must be sprayed. Every day, when worms appear, they are sprayed, because that way the vegetables will be good, have high yield and not be damaged, which is more "preferred" by consumers. When asked about the quarantine period, Mr. Hung affirmed that not only him but also all other vegetable growing families in the commune, it is impossible to guarantee, because when the vegetables are ready to be harvested, they cannot be harvested even though they have just been sprayed. When we arrived, Mr. Hung's vegetable field had only been planted for 15 days but had already been sprayed with pesticides twice. He said that each batch of cabbage, if at least, is sprayed 7 times, in years with unfavorable weather, that number must increase to 10-11 times, many times, sprayed today and picked tomorrow because customers have demand or the vegetables are ready to be harvested.


Winter vegetables in Quynh Luong (Quynh Luu).

Chairman of Nam Anh Commune People's Committee - Mr. Tran Van Sinh said: 9/9 hamlets of Nam Anh all grow vegetables with over 500 households having their main income from this profession. Every year, each hectare of vegetables can bring in a revenue of 200-300 million VND. In recent years, the commune has regularly advised people to use the right type of pesticides at the right time, and is planning to bring electricity to the fields for irrigation. In addition to applying scientific and technological advances to ensure productivity and output, people still abuse pesticides, even some crops are currently alarming for pesticide residues such as cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes..., but there are still no solutions!

In fact, in most vegetable growing areas of the province, controlling pesticide residues on vegetables is an issue that has not been solved yet. The total annual vegetable production area of ​​Nghe An is about 15,137 hectares, with an output of 150-170 thousand tons with a variety of varieties. Through an investigation into the use of pesticides on vegetables, it is shown that every year, up to 60.8% of farmers use pesticides incorrectly, of which 25% do not ensure the quarantine period, 42.3% use pesticides not on the list on vegetables, and 30% use pesticides with incorrect dosage and technique. There are up to 27 types of pesticides used on vegetables, of which the group considered less dangerous is growth stimulants with only 4 types, the remaining 15 types of pesticides and 8 types of fungicides.

It is very dangerous that the number of times of spraying pesticides on vegetable plants is up to 5-6 times/growth cycle, even in some places, some groups of plants are sprayed from 10-15 times/cycle, especially on vegetables such as climbing beans, tomatoes, amaranth... In 2011, the Plant Protection Department also took samples to analyze pesticide residues on vegetable plants, the number of samples detected with residues was up to 18/90 samples (equal to 20%), the number of samples detected with two types of chemicals was up to nearly 57%, in which fruit vegetables had the highest level of contamination (40%) and leafy vegetables accounted for 15%. In particular, the number of samples exceeding the allowable level in groups was more than 61%.

The above results show that the use of pesticides on vegetables in Nghe An is in a worrying situation. According to the head of the specialized inspection department (Provincial Plant Protection Department) - Mr. Nguyen Xuan Binh, currently, people are using pesticides mainly according to "crowd mentality", spraying when they see pests, but almost not caring when the disease has reached the threshold that requires spraying. There are too many types of pesticides, while people's knowledge is still limited.

According to the inspection results of the specialized inspection force, in the first 6 months of 2012, there were nearly 240 types of pesticides circulating in the Nghe An market, and the dangerous thing is that people mostly buy pesticides based on "experience", following the instructions of sellers who are often just seasonal traders, without qualifications or certificates, and with limited knowledge about pesticides. This is very worrying because it leads to widespread use of pesticides, people see that they cannot get rid of them and buy other pesticides to spray again, which is both wasteful and toxic and dangerous for consumers as well as those who use pesticides. According to statistics, on average, the whole province uses 600-650 tons of pesticides of all kinds every year, an average of 1-1.5 kg/ha of crops for one spray, in which many areas are sprayed many times, especially on vegetables.

According to regulations on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of pesticides, if people spray pesticides before the spraying threshold, or spray at concentrations that are too high, they will be fined from 150,000 to 200,000 VND. However, according to Mr. Binh, in recent years we have not been able to punish a single case, even though the use of pesticides is currently widespread and indiscriminate. District plant protection stations regularly send officials to inspect and correct the use of pesticides, but it is really too much and it is also very difficult to punish farmers if violations are discovered. Meanwhile, except for a few localities, most authorities at all levels are still lax in managing the business and use of pesticides in the area.

It can be said that the use of pesticides has reached an alarming level. Recently, the Department of Agriculture has implemented a program to monitor chemical residues on agricultural products, in order to take necessary measures. In the immediate future, to help people limit the use of pesticides on vegetables, the province needs to pay attention to building clean vegetable production areas, from production to consumption of products, creating peace of mind for farmers when applying advanced production processes that are suitable for this trend.

Phu Huong