VietNamNet Bridge – The Plant Protection Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has proposed to apply heavy-handed measures to prohibit the use of hazardous pesticides in agriculture production.

Hazardous substances will be prohibited in one more year?

In 2006, MARD released the Decision No. 89 aiming to gradually restrict and stop the use of hazardous plant protection substances.

Under the decision, the registration to use some kinds of chemically derived substances has been prohibited.

However, the problem is that while the kinds of substances cannot be registered in accordance with the decision, are still found in the list of the substances allowed to be used for vegetables.

Only in early 2013, did the Plant Protection Agency propose MARD to issue the Circular No. 03 to fix the big problem. However, under the circular, the substances stipulated in Decision 89 would be officially banned in Vietnam from February 25, 2015.

As such, to date, a lot of plant protection chemicals belonging to the Group 2 would still be sprayed to vegetables in Vietnam for one more year. Besides, the other hundreds of chemical and biological substances belonging to the Group 3 and 4 would still be legally used after February 25, 2015.

According to the Plant Protection Agency, 143 active elements with 722 products are allowed to be used for vegetables in Vietnam, of which chemical elements account for 49 percent.

Of these, 31 chemical active elements belonging to Group 2 (high toxicity) are still allowed to be used for vegetables before they are prohibited from February 25, 2015.

The heavy handed measures proposed

As such, the newly released Circular No. 03 will need amendment, because the circular does not prohibit the use of the Group 3 and 4’s pesticide products after February 25, 2015.

The Plant Protection Agency believes that it is necessary to prohibit the use of all kinds of chemically derived substances for vegetables. Only the safe biological plant protection substances would be approved for the use for vegetables.

Of the biological substances, no more licenses would be granted to the products containing Abamectin and Emamectin elements because there are numerous products containing the elements already.

It is still unclear if MARD would approve the proposals of the agency. However, experts do not think that the complete removal of the hazardous pesticides would come true, even if the suggested measures get the nod from the watchdog agency.

Dr. Nguyen Kim Van from the Vietnam Plant Protection Association, noted that a lot of training programs to help farmers use pesticide in a safe way have been carried out, but they have not helped so far.

Van noted that farmers understand well that they must not use unsafe pesticides, but they still deliberately use them. That explains why they do not use pesticides for the vegetables for their daily meals. The pesticides have been used only for the vegetables to be sold to urbanites.

Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to punish farmers heavily for their use of hazardous pesticides. Only once they have to pay penalty for their incorrect actions, will they stop doing the prohibited things.

Nong Nghiep