Port Blair, Sept 19: A presentation-cum-meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, A&N Administration, Shri. Anindo Majumdar yesterday to discuss the outcome of the project ‘Baseline Survey to ascertain the status of Chemical residues in Soil, Water and Agricultural products’ conducted by CIARI -a task assigned to CIARI during the year 2011-12 under RKVY scheme. Port Blair, Sept 19: A presentation-cum-meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, A&N Administration, Shri. Anindo Majumdar yesterday to discuss the outcome of the project ‘Baseline Survey to ascertain the status of Chemical residues in Soil, Water and Agricultural products’ conducted by CIARI -a task assigned to CIARI during the year 2011-12 under RKVY scheme.
In a press release received here today, the Director of Agriculture mentioned that the Study revealed the presence of chemical residues of DDT, Profenophos, Acetamiprid, Imidachloprid in soil, ground water and sea water. Even heavy metals namely Arsenic and Selenium were also found in the fish samples collected during the study. Presence of these chemical residues is very much hazardous to human health as well as marine lives. The Chief Secretary asked the PRIs to give wide publicity in the Gram Sabhas and sensitize the people on the harmful effect of chemicals through print and electronic media. The DC South Andaman, Shri.Udit Prakash Rai, informed that on Oct 2, Special Gram Sabhas is being organized for Swatchta Abhiyan and this sensitizing programme on ‘Organic Farming’ can also be linked with it. The Chief Secretary directed the Agriculture Department to prepare a concrete Action Plan in consultation with CIARI and PRIs to restrict use of these chemicals as this is very important to go ahead for ‘Organic Farming’ in Islands.
The Secretary (Agri), Shri Ramesh Verma informed that resource person from Regional Council of Organic Farming (RCOF) Bhubaneswar will impart training to the departmental officers and staff on ‘Organic Farming’ and PGS certification on Sept 21 & 22, 2017. The information revealed during the training programme will be further transferred to farmers. A demonstration programme will also be conducted in farmers’ field at Ferrargunj under SAGY by involving about 50 farmers of the area on 20th Sept 2017.
The meeting was attended by the Senior Officers of Administration, Shri. Jaydeep Kr. Dey, Adhyaksh ZPSA, Shri. Apurba Ch. Roy, Pramukh, Prothrapur Panchayat Samity, Shri.Sandeep Biswas, Pramukh, Ferrargunj Panchayat Samity and Shri. Shyamal Mondal, Pramukh Diglipur Panchayat Samity, Directors of Agriculture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Health, Industries Department, CIPMC and CIARI. Dr. A.Velmurugan, Principal Scientist, CIARI made a presentation of the project/study. All the members present in the meeting expressed great concern over the findings and advised the Department to put a restriction on use of such chemicals by sensitizing the general public as well as farming community and to think over safer alternatives to replace these chemicals. All the members also requested the representative of Department of Health Services to think upon alternatives of DDT use for controlling malaria, the release added.
