Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) states that “If it is not safe, it is not food”, as it does not serve its purpose to provide proper and safe nutrition. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reiterates that Sustainable Agriculture that seeks to increase yields while limiting the need for application of pesticides or synthetic fertilizers; only can relate Food Security with Food Safety. As the second largest agrarian country of the world, India has also become one of the largest users of pesticides. Surveys have shown that Indian food is laced with one of the highest amount of toxic pesticide residues in the world. Hence, analysis of pesticide residues in food has become the governing criteria for ensuring food safety. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have laid down science based standards towards food safety based on the Codex standards, which are the reference for the international trade in food. However, it has been found that pesticide monitoring in food is most difficult in countries where that monitoring is arguably most needed. This is because the present chromatographic techniques though can precisely determine the presence of every chemical at the minute level but the process is hugely expensive, complex, time-consuming and require specific resources and infrastructure which offer major hindrance towards regular analysis for monitoring of food safety. Especially for a country like India, with absolute dominance of marginal farmers in vegetable cultivation, lack of awareness, resource scarcity, inability to take economic risk and flaws in maintaining the standard practices w.r.t. chemical usage enhances the availability of pesticides in food product. Moreover the short time gap between the field harvest of vegetables and consumption, limits the scope for safety analysis even if the infrastructure and economics is not considered. In this background an effective, simple, and affordable method is needed to enable pesticide residue analysis in situations of limited resources more so for Safe & Sustainable Agriculture Scope & Approach: In this scenario, the Colorimetric Pesticide Assay Test can be a Real Game Changer in the Food Safety Arena and a Crucial ‘Sustainability Tool’ for Safe & Sustainable Agriculture. This test method although utilized round the globe to identify the pesticides residues both in a quantitative and qualitative manner, lack a standard protocol towards safety evaluation of vegetables in terms of detecting the presence/absence of the major pesticide groups. Another crucial point is how to measure in the most affordable and transparent manner. Then it has to be made available for small, marginal and resource poor farmers, who are more than 95% of the total farming community. Inhana Organic Research Foundation (IORF), Kolkata in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nadia (ICAR) initiated a research work in June, 2020 to develop a Protocol for Colorimetric Pesticide Assay Test of vegetables with the objectives of (i) Most Authentic and Speedy Measurement of the major groups of pesticides viz. organochlorine, organophosphate, synthetic pyrethroids, carbamates and neonicotinoids, that are used during vegetable production, (ii) Identifying the collective presence/ absence of the pesticide residues up to the lowest- group specific permissible limits (same type of pesticides in terms of chemical structure) and (iii) Standardization of the Method towards its effective utilization for large scale Pesticide Residue Study in the most economical manner. The Support from IBM, India for Clean Food Production – A Safe and Sustainable Agricultural Initiative; helped in the efforts to standardize the Colorimetric Assay Test Protocol towards safety evaluation of the vegetables. The standardization process involved the analysis of more than 1200 samples of 30 major vegetables produced in India. Vegetable samples were sourced from open markets, certified organic counters and from the farmers’ field where the concept of Clean Food Program was 1st initiated by IORF in collaboration with KVK, Nadia (ICAR). Also the vegetable samples were sourced during different seasons i.e., winter (Period : November – February), monsoon (Period : July – October) and summer (Period : March – June). Key Findings & Conclusion: The newly standardized Colorimetric Pesticide Assay Test Protocol can enable detection of the collective presence/ absence of pesticides up to group specific- lowest permissible limit; for more than 90 percent of the pesticides- permitted for use in India, for most of the banned chemicals, as well as chances of residual presence in case of chemicals like DDT and its isomer. In addition; this Assay Test protocol can also be utilized for detecting the presence/ absence of toxic heavy metals such as Hg2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and a wide range of other toxic substance of known/unknown origin related to human health and safety. Moreover the Colorimetric Pesticide Assay Test Protocol opens up the scope for large scale and frequent food safety analysis due to the affordable cost (1/10th to 1/15th of the Conventional Cost of Residue Analysis) and significant reduction in the analysis time (1/10th of the time required for Residue Analysis using High Performance Liquid Chromatography, HPLC).
Coir pith, a byproduct of coir industry, continues to be dumped as a waste in India, because despite its utility being claimed in different applications, an efficient and adoptable technology for its safe utilization is yet unavailable. Due to high lignin content and high C:N ratio, coir pith when left untreated can take decades to decompose, which not only leads to environmental pollution but most importantly methane emission, thereby contributing to climate change. However, once composted, coir pith can transform into an effective soil rejuvenator, considering its utility towards amelioration of especially marginal/ agriculturally degraded soil and improvement of soil productivity. But so far, there is no available composting technology in this respect which is practically feasible, economically viable and socially acceptable. Under IBM-IORF Sustainability project (2022-23) at Mandya, Karnataka, an effort was initiated utilizing Novcom Composting Technology, towards bioconversion of coir pith into safe, mature and qualitative compost for sustainable soil management, especially looking at the stony red soils of the area which are erosion prone, and have a poor productive potential. Periodical study of Novcom coir pith compost samples on 0, 10, 20 and 30 days confirmed effective degradation as demonstrated by the rapid decline of C:N ratio from 1:100 to < 1:25, appreciation of total nitrogen by 98 percent and 60 % degradation of lignin within a 30 days’ time period. The facts are corroborated by the respective very high (in the order of 1016 c.f.u. per gm or one Trillion Billion microflora per ton compost) population of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. Phytotoxicity Bioassay test values confirmed not only the absence of phytotoxic elements in compost, but also indicated that this compost can actually accelerate seed germination and root growth process. Estimation of methane mitigation potential under this technology utilizing the carbon assessment tool - Agriculture Carbon Footprint Assessor (ACFA, version: 1.0) indicated that untreated coir pith can potentially emit methane in the range of 5897 – 6025 kg CO2 equivalent (taking GWP24 years of methane: 75). GHG emission during biodegradation of coir pith utilizing Novcom Composting Technology, was found to be about 31 times lower (6.47 kg CO2 equivalent/ ton treated waste) than the reference values recorded in respect of any other standard biodegradation process. Especially in terms of methane the negligible emission under this composting technology is the highlight, as corroborated by the documented value of 0.61 kg CO2 equivalent/ ton treated waste. The evaluation confirmed that bioconversion of coir pith utilizing Novcom Composting Technology can enable methane mitigation of about 6000 ton CO2 equivalent per 1000 ton waste, directly from the source point. The study indicated that Novcom Composting Technology can transform not only a potential pollutant to a quality organic soil amendment, the process also etches out and effective pathway for methane abatement directly from the source point that has crucial impact not only in respect of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, but also SDG 15, SDG-3 and most importantly SDG-2. Hence, bioconversion of coir- pith utilizing this technology can also facilitate an effective model towards the Net Zero commitment with significant social and environmental impacts.
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