Hung Nguyen expands the model of rice field trash bins

(Baonghean) - Every year, Hung Nguyen farmers use about 32,000 kg of pesticides to spray on more than 8,000 hectares of rice and other crops. Pesticide packaging after use is thrown away by people on the banks of rice fields, causing environmental pollution. To overcome this situation, the district has piloted a model of trash bins on the banks of rice fields and has shown positive results.

Pesticide bags are thrown haphazardly on the banks of the fields.

Pesticides play an important role in preventing pests, protecting production, and ensuring food security. However, people throwing away pesticide bags right in the fields has seriously polluted the environment.

This situation is quite common in rice and vegetable fields in Hung Nguyen district. Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu in hamlet 7, Hung Thong commune has 8 sao of rice fields, producing 2 rice crops each year. There are many types of pesticides that she uses to spray on the rice from the time of planting until the rice begins to bloom. On average, each sao of rice field sprays at least 200 grams of pesticides each year. Thus, on average, each year, her family sprays 1.6 kg of pesticides on the field. She throws all the pesticide packaging on the fields and ditches. "I know that throwing pesticide packaging in the fields will pollute the environment, but other households throw it in the fields, so I do too. Whichever field you spray pesticides in, throw it at the foot of the field" - Ms. Nhu said innocently. Sharing the same thought, farmers in Hung Tan commune have never collected pesticide packaging.

In Hung Nguyen, the situation of farmers throwing away pesticide packaging indiscriminately all over the fields, causing environmental pollution and water sources is happening in most communes in the district. Hung Nguyen town has also propagated and instructed farmers to collect waste such as used pesticide bags and bottles to bury them, but it seems not very effective.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hue - Head of the Hung Nguyen Town Agricultural Service Cooperative explained: "When pumping water to irrigate the fields, pesticide packaging drifted along the irrigation ditches. In some places, pesticide packaging, along with bottles and trash, clogged the sewers. The Cooperative had to send people to collect them."

Due to habit, after using pesticides, farmers often throw away packaging, bottles, and jars containing pesticides right in the fields or into canals and on internal traffic routes without collecting and destroying them properly. The amount of pesticides remaining in bottles and packaging is the cause of water pollution, affecting the ecosystem and humans.

“Faced with that reality, through training sessions, the District Plant Protection Station has provided instructions on how to use pesticides, combined with propaganda, and advised farmers to collect pesticide packaging and bottles to limit environmental pollution. The Hung Nguyen District Plant Protection Station is coordinating with the Nghe An Plant Protection Sub-Department to build pilot models of placing concrete bins in the fields so that people can collect pesticide packaging themselves,” said Mr. Le Viet Hung, Head of the Hung Nguyen District Plant Protection Station.

Place cement tanks to collect pesticide packaging in the fields in Hung Nguyen.

The model of building bins to collect waste bottles and pesticide bags right in the fields has been implemented in 4 hamlets in 3 communes including hamlet 7, Hung Thong, hamlet 4, Hung Tien and hamlets 6 and 12, Hung Trung commune. Mr. Nguyen Van Vuong - Head of the Agriculture Department of Hung Trung commune said: "2 concrete bins were placed in hamlet 6 since 2013, up to now all households have voluntarily collected pesticide bags and put them in. The concrete bins in the fields of hamlet 12 were just placed at the beginning of the spring crop of 2015, but now some households have also started to consciously collect garbage". In Hung Thong, starting from the spring crop of 2015, right after the commune completed the consolidation and exchange of plots, the pilot model of placing 2 concrete bins to collect pesticide bags was implemented in the model field of hamlet 7.

Mr. Pham Viet Nam - Party Secretary of Hung Thong commune said: "Since placing concrete bins in the fields, the internal roads, field banks, and ditch banks near the trash bins no longer have packaging and bottles of pesticides thrown around like before. From the successful model in hamlet 7, in the coming time, the commune will continue to direct hamlets to implement placing containers for pesticide packaging in the fields, so that people have a place to collect trash...".

Pesticides are all contained in silver-coated polyethylene bags or plastic bottles, so when released into the environment, they will not decompose by themselves and cause pollution. Therefore, collecting and treating pesticide packaging is an urgent task to protect the environment in production areas, meeting the requirements of clean and sustainable production. The field trash bin model is a good practice in some localities in the province. However, the implementation of this model is not much, even Hung Nguyen has deployed it since 2013, but so far there are only 8 trash bins. This is too little compared to the actual needs, especially at the time when the rice blast epidemic is spreading and causing widespread damage, localities are focusing on directing farmers to spray pesticides. Therefore, it is necessary to replicate the model, install more trash bins and promote propaganda so that people collect bottles and bags containing pesticides and put them in trash bins, not to throw them indiscriminately in the fields, causing environmental pollution.

Thanh Tam