The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : It’s safe to eat your fruits, vegetables and cereals

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Friday, Dec 05, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

It’s safe to eat your fruits, vegetables and cereals

Special Correspondent

Pesticide residue-level is well within permissible limits

Samples of fruits, vegetables and cereals were collected from the market for analysis
Such monitoring is to be carried out regularly

BANGALORE: The pesticide residue-level in fruits, vegetables and cereals is well within the permissible limits in the country, according to the results from testing samples of farm produce as part of a national project launched by the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

Indian Council for Agricultural Research Assistant Director-General T.P. Rajendran told presspersons in Bangalore on Thursday that the Agriculture Ministry had taken up a national scheme to monitor the pesticide residues through tests in sophisticated laboratories.

Under the scheme, samples of fruits, vegetables and cereals were collected from the market for analysis of pesticide residue.

The results of these tests had shown that there was nothing alarming about the pesticide residue-level in the samples.

This kind of a monitoring is being carried out continuously.

Micro-level planning

Replying to a query on the steps initiated by the Centre to insulate farmers from the impact of global recession, Dr. Rajendran said several missions such as the National Horticulture Mission and National Food Security Mission, launched by the Centre, were effective enough to tackle such a situation.

Focus

In addition to this, the Centre’s decision to focus on micro-level approach to agriculture by considering the district as the fundamental unit of implementation of plans would go a long way in helping farmers, he said.

This was a departure from the earlier approach where the focus was on macro-level planning.

The Centre had allocated nearly Rs. 30,000 crore for various schemes in the agricultural sector this fiscal.

Utilisation

This included Rs. 25,000 crore for the implementation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Rs. 5,000 crore for the National Food Security Mission.

Karnataka’s share in these schemes would be Rs. 1,500 crore to Rs. 2,000 crore, he said.

Mr. Rajendran stressed the need for judicious use of agricultural inputs, not only to save precious resources for the future generations, but also to prevent the abuse of the environment.

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