All countries that I have visited have more facilities for making and selling pesticides than for their safe and judicious use. Stewardship is generally relegated to the side-lines if it exists at all. All stakeholders lose in this business model.
What a difference infrastructure can make to pesticide safety. This is my cardinal impression from my on-going work in village Tepla of Ambala district of Haryana in India. It is a wonderful experience to work with a committed team. Meeting the same set of farmers, technologists, administrators, and medical personnel, enables one to make tangible and rapid progress in terms of pesticide safety. Here is a picture of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agriculture Science Center) at Tepla:
I visit Tepla every month, and hope to establish weekly multi-media contacts on the Internet soon. We have already improved capabilities to deal with acute toxicity, and will work on chronic aspects in due course.
Please visit Tepla when you can, and audit the pesticide safety steps in motion there. I would welcome your critical comments for improvement. I am glad to say that my efforts to establish similar infrastructure in other parts of Haryana, in Punjab, and in Andhra Pradesh are all racing ahead with delightful speed.
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