Pesticide Applications-Threat to Ecosystems

Abstract

Many pesticides and chemicals are not biodegradable, and due to bioaccumulation, can enter into food chain and ultimately affect human and animal health. Environmental exposure of pesticides to humans through ecosystems may be during cropping/ agriculture practices, consumption of food materials or air inhalation etc. Without pesticides or agricultural chemicals (herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators), crop yield could drop by as much as a third and food prices would increase by as much as 75%. In India, 145 pesticides are registered for use at present and production has increased to approximately 85,000 metric tones. Though consumption in India is just about 0.5 kg/ha, but 51% food commodities are contaminated pesticide residues. Toxicity of pesticide is measured according to a number of indices (such as oral and dermal LD50) based on tests carried out on laboratory animals. They act mainly on receptors. In agriculture, mixing-loading step is the most contaminated task in open field accounting for two-thirds of the total daily exposure. Adverse health effects include acute and persistent injury to the nervous system, lung damage, injury to reproductive organs, and dysfunction of the immune and endocrine systems, birth defects and cancer. Even small amounts of some of these chemicals cause death; disrupt hormones and reduce the ability to successfully reproduce; and have been associated with specific cancers. Better understanding of the patterns of exposure, the underlying variability within the human population, and the links between the animal toxicology data and human health effects will improve the evaluation of the risks to human health posed by pesticides. Improving epidemiology studies and integrating this information with toxicology data will allow the human health risks of pesticide exposure to be more accurately judged by public health policy makers. There is need to educate all farmers for judicious use of pesticides, use of biotechnology and bio-pesticides, use of pesticides obtained from natural products such as Azadirachta indica (neem) via proper application of integrated pest management (IPM) programs would positively reflect on human health, agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem management to minimize environmental problems caused by pesticides.

Bats in the Anthropogenic Matrix: Challenges and Opportunities for the Conservation of Chiroptera and Their Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes

“…Investigations in India (Senthilkumar et al 2001) and Benin (Stechert et al 2014) have detected levels or metabolites of organochlorines in bat samples indicative of continued recent use in these regions, especially to fight against malaria. Furthermore, pesticide standards vary between different countries, application often appears to occur non-selectively, and farmers with limited training (especially in developing countries, where agricultural expansion is greatest) are likely to be unaware of the multitude of negative nontargeted environmental impacts affecting human health and biodiversity (Tilman et al 2001;Yadav 2010).…”

Management of Collar Rot Disease Caused by Macrophomina phaseolina in Jatropha curcas - Green Diesel Plant

“…+ Indicates Mycelial Growth, -Indicates Inhibition of Mycelial Growth nature [9,10]. They are hepatotoxic [11], cause reproductive disorders [12] and immunosuppression [13].…”

Pareto-efficient biological pest control enable high efficacy at small costs

“…Farmers have traditionally resorted to pesticides to prevent and mitigate pest outbreaks, but their use may have unwanted consequences including insect resistance, resurgence, outbreak of secondary pests, and pesticide residues affecting human health and the environment. Indeed, heavy usage of synthetic pesticides have been linked to pest resistance, pest resurgence, health risks from exposure, and food contamination (Khooharo et al 2008;Yadav 2010) Biological pest control is an alternative to chemical pest control in which naturally occurring enemies such as predators, parasitoids, or pathogens rather than pesticides are used to control the pests. The use of naturally occurring enemies to suppress insect pests has several advantages over chemical pest control, in particular safety for farmers, consumers, and non-targeted organisms.…”