Farmers raised concerns regarding dip in sales of fruits and vegetables in the wake of reports that vegetables cultivated in Tamil Nadu, which were sold in Kerala, had high amounts of pesticides and harmful to health.
“Ever since the word is out about high pesticide content in farm produce from the State, there is a dip in sale of fruits and vegetables cultivated in places such as Melur and Tirumangalam,” a participant said at the monthly farmers’ grievance day meeting held on the Collectorate premises here on Friday.
Collector L. Subramanian said that six samples, including brinjal, mango, plantains, coriander and guava, were sent for testing and results showed that the pesticide content were within prescribed limits.
“The results have affirmed that healthy and organic farming is largely practiced in the district. We also carried out checks regarding sale of banned fertilizers and none of the authorised distribution points stocked them. However, banned pesticides worth Rs. 2 lakh were seized from sellers without permits and action was taken against them,” Mr. Subramanian said.
“Repair machines”
Some of the farmers appealed to the Collector to ensure that harvesting machines were maintained properly.
“When the belt or any other part of the machine gets damaged, the officials take their own time to attend to the repairs and we are forced to hire machines at a high cost from private parties,” a farmer from Samayanallur said.
The Collector assured the farmers that the repairs would be carried out on time and encouraged them to make use of the machines available in their areas.
“There are five machines available with the Cooperation Department and two harvesting machines with the Agriculture Engineering Department,” he said.
