Training against ill effects of pesticides

SHILLONG, Jan 11: The Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Shillong, Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, organised a two-day HRD-cum-Orientation Training Programme for 45 participants comprising agriculture officers, horticulture officers and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) functionaries.
The programme, which was held at State Biological Control Laboratory, Upper Shillong, was organised in line with advisory from Plant Protection Advisor, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
According to a statement, a survey was recently conducted for 2,40,934 food samples by FSSAI-notified laboratories in India, out of which 2,36,251 samples were found to be compliant and 4,683 samples non-compliant to Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) and/or use of banned and off-label pesticides.
Out of these, 20 banned pesticides were found above permitted levels in the food samples. “To address the issues related to pesticides, this two-day training programme was organised as a capacity building programme on ‘ill effects of indiscriminate use of pesticides & Argo Eco System Analysis (AESA) based Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques’,” the statement said.