The Department of Horticulture here has cautioned arecanut growers against using some solutions claimed to be organic in nature sold in market for sometime now to fight ‘kole roga’ (fruit rot disease) in arecanut plantations.
A statement from the department has come two years after some arecanut growers began using them to control the blight.
Yogesh H.R., Deputy Director, Department of Horticulture, Dakshina Kannada, those solutions were being sold under different brand names but all start with Bio…
He said in a release that the department received complaints from some farmers who used the solution. The farmers complained that there was pre-maturity of crop, nut dropping, withering of leaves and drop in production after spraying the solutions.
Mr. Yogesh said that the department or any other government department had not recommended their spray to control the blight. No research had been done on the side affects of the solutions.
The release said that those said to be organic solutions had not been registered under Insecticides Act, 1968.
If farmers continued to spray those solutions and incurred loss, the department would not pay them any compensation.
At a conference organised by the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd. (Campco) here on April 25, 2012, Ignatius D’Souza of Bejai, a dealer of farm products, had drawn the attention of all on the legal aspect of selling those solutions. He had said that information obtained by him under the RTI Act from the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage under the Union Department of Agriculture and Cooperation revealed that use of potassium phosphonate in the country, said to be a major ingredient in those ‘organic’ solutions sold under different brand names starting with Bio …, was not allowed as per Insecticides Act, 1968.
