Anisul Islam Noor :Random use of chemical pesticides, fertilisers and hormones are posing serious threats to safe food production and public health. The use of those harmful chemicals is going on despite repeated warning byexperts, a study said. “The country’s farmers are using more than 50,000 tonnes of pesticides and 4.3 million tonnes of chemical fertilisers annually which are both harming human beings and soil,” the study said.Apart from chemicals, several kinds of hormones, antibiotics are also being used both for crops and livestock, the paper revealed.Excessive use of those chemical may cause different disease including cancer but most of the people are unaware about the harmful effect of hormones, observation added.An anti pesticide campaign programme is being launched by the Bangladesh Food Safety Network (BFSN) with the help of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO-UN).The experts have suggested the ways to get rid of random use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers by adopting alternative agricultural practices avoiding chemical farming.The BFSN, a platform of five organisations including Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh (CAB), Hunger Free World, UBINIG, SHISHUK and Be Safe Foundation, established in 2010, works for consumer rights.Dr Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry said the country has almost achieved self-sufficiency in food grains, potato and other some other food crops. “Now we should work more for chemical free food production,” he said. President of BFSN Farida Akhter who also made the research paper which revealed that the country produces 34.7 million tonnes of rice, 13.1 million tonnes of vegetables, 9.2 million tonnes of potato, pulses 0.8 million tonnes and oil seed 0.9 million tonnes.CAB president Ghulam Rahman said, farmers of Bangladesh are doing a tremendous job by making the country self-sufficient in many crops. Now together fight we should fight against spray of chemical and hormones, he said.
