By Mr Pankaj Bhatnagar
Since a total ban on the use of chemical pesticides is unlikely to happen in any country in the foreseeable future, ensuring health risk reduction from pesticides will largely depend on two aspects ;
One. Identifying pesticides that are human carcinogens and
Second, Working out a mechanism that is pragmatic and easy to implement, so that harmful pesticides do not reach our kitchens.
However, despite the Court’s directions nothing much has happened and No workable model/mechanism has been prepared by the authorised Govt agency ; FSSAI that can achieve the above objective.
Notwithstanding the above, as a responsible citizen of the country, it is our duty to devise and suggest a workable mechanism so that we can get rid, to a reasonable extent from this decontamination of fruits and vegetables.
Before, suggesting a model we need to evaluate as to why Govt agencies have failed to stop these harmful pesticides reaching our kitchen ;-
1~ lack of manpower to cover the huge area of production.
2~ Large number of whole sale points spread across the length and breadth of the country.
3~ The sale of fruits and vegetables largely takes place through unorganized sector ; small road side vendors.
5~ In comparison to the area of production and sale points there are very few testing labs.
In view of the above, the FSSAI is unable to take the samples of fruits and vegetables from the point of production and if at all they do, they will only be able to take samples from mandis or retailers.
When we purchase items of our daily needs like grocery or packed food products we can easily get to know the details of the producer, date of packaging, expiry date etc etc which is marked on the packet itself, however, as regards vegetables and fruits that we buy from the road side vendor/mandis there is no way we can get to know the source of produce, the date on which it was plucked etc.
While in developed countries this information regarding the source , as to from which farm the cauliflower has come can be easily tracked.
As we have 15 Agro climatic zones in India and different time frames of productions from North to South of our country, it’s difficult to keep a control on sales.
Consequently, devising a workable mechanism which can be implemented all over India, given the peculiar situation as it exists in our country, is not an easy task.
Therefore, First we need to look at the existing agriculture infrastructure in India. As per the government statistics of 2014- 15 the total number of villages in India is 6.64 lakhs. To serve the farmers, spread over these villages , the government has created - Primary Agriculture Societies {PACS} . They are approx 92789, out of this approx 67,000 are viable and 19,929 are potentially viable. These PACS cover 6.29 lakh villages at an average of 7 villages per PAC ( data acquired in 2014-15 by National cooperative union of India.)
The model that is being suggested here uses the existing infrastructure optimally in the following manner ;-
One. Every district to have a co op. society, covering cluster of villages governed by district co operative banks.
Two. Make Every co op. society act as nodal point for collection and decontamination of vegetables and fruits. Each cooperative society will have its own specific mark.
Three. FSSAI/State govt. be made responsible for setting up decontamination facilities at society level as per recommendations of scientific committee of FSSAI.
Four. Society should mobilize farmers to encourage the decontamination and labelling of their produce.
Five. Every decontaminated lot of produce will then have mark of safety and also of the society that has decontaminated it. This will ensure to track the source of produce.
Six. All records will be kept at society and at APMC level.
Seven. FSSAI will randomly collect the samples for testing at society/APMC and the results will be kept at society level.
Conclusion.
Though we all do some kind of decontamination at home before cooking of vegetables and that undoubtedly reduces some residual pesticides from external surfaces, but, the internal contamination that has percolated into the fruits/ vegetable may still remain. Although while cooking almost 75 %of internal contamination gets removed but lets not forget that some vegetables and most of the fruits are eaten raw and that can be harmful for health.
This implies that the decontamination process has to be done at every step, right from the farm level and this model, therefore will go a long way in ensuring that finally what we get in the kitchen will have contamination which will be within the laid down limits.
This is a Workable Mechanism for decontamination which uses the existing infrastructure optimally and will help the government agencies in ensuring that the citizens get safe food to consume.
Author ; Mr Pankaj Bhatnagar has an enormous experience behind him, having spent almost 40 years in the Food and Agriculture Industry. He has served the industry for such a long period that he is well aware of its nitty gritties and the problems/challenges that Indian agriculture and the farmers face, consequently he is able to provide a Holistic view of the various aspects that have an impact on Indian agriculture and Food industry.
DISCLAIMER
Views expressed above are the author's own