Assessment of the impacts of pesticide use in agricultural land on the ecological resources of arial beel

Abstract

'Jhc green revolution package wa~ introduced in Bangladesh agriculture in mid 1960~, It promised to increase productiun of cereal crops, particularly rice, b} the introduction of HYV seeds. application or chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and irrigation. HYV ricc has contributed significantly to the progress towards the food self sullkieney or Bangladesh, The use of pesticides has increased by 400% per hectare and i(&cost has inereascd by 600% during the 1a,t couple of deeadcs. At present. 84 pe~tieide active ingredients belonging to 242 trade names arc registered in Bangladesh. Out orthe total pe~ticide usc. over 80% are in rice Jields. The rapid inercase of pesticide use is causing detrimental effect on the en\'irunment, and health of farm workers and consumer~, Pesticides are contaminating ground and surface water, which is causing depletion of inland fishing resources and ttosystem, Thi, study was carried out to assess the impaet~ of pesticide used in rice fields on the ecological rcsources of the Arial beel. an agroeeologieaJ zone. four ecological indicators catfish, daphnia, algae and rat were used in this asse~sment and the assessment was done by using a linear model known as Pesticide Impact Rating Indcx (PIRI), Various input data required to evaluate the impacts "'ere gathered from field measurements, Focus Group Diseu~~ion~ v.-ith the farmers and tishermen, informal interviews of local Jeaders, secondary sources. etc. Field data revealed that most of the fanners (44%) used Basudin, a Carbamate pesticide which ha~ high impact on all of the four selected indicator species (catfish, daphnia, algae and rat), Besides thi~, Furadan also has high impacts on the indicators. Some other pesticides. like Sumithion, Ripcord, Sevin and Malathion, have relatively lower impaet~ on the ecological resources of the Arial Bed. Most of the farmers of the beel area believed that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the most reliable technique to minimizc the offsite impacts of pesticides, Local farmers and elite persons opined that training of farmer, to build their capacity in adoption of WM technique~ could be one of the suitable ~trategies to reduce the use of pesticide,.