Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) has come forward to conduct the quality test for copper sulphate sold in market to control kole roga (fruit rot disease) in arecanut palms.
Copper sulphate and lime mixture is traditionally used to control the disease and with this test farmers can clear their doubts about the copper sulphate in the market meeting the CPCRI standards.
According to the director of the institute P. Chowdappa, farmers doubt the quality of the copper sulphate available in the market before the monsoon.
Companies have sometimes failed to maintain the quality and therefore in some plantations the disease could not be controlled during the monsoon.
He said that if the farmers brought the samples the institute would test them in its regional stations and research centres (Vitla, Kidu) and at its headquarters in Kasaragod. In addition, the institute itself would draw some samples from the market before the monsoon.
The director said that the institute has recommended the spray of copper sulphate-lime mixture for controlling the disease. It has not recommended the spray of any other products that were now available in the market under different brand names starting from “bio …..”. He added that it was to make farmers believe that they were organic products and chemical-free.
He said that no chemical without the label claim and registration with the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee could be sold in market. Those new products now sold in the market neither had the label claim nor the registration. He would write to the board bringing this aspect to the notice and issue an appropriate order to stop their sale.
Meanwhile, Yogesh H.R., Deputy Director, Department of Horticulture, Dakshina Kannada, told The Hindu that those products were being sold in the market as a “plant extract” and were organic. As of now no permission was required to sell organic products. There was no specific law to control sale of organic products. Hence the department was not able to seize them.
Mr. Yogesh said that it has still not been authentically established that those products had potassium phosphate chemical contents as claimed by some farmers.
H. Kempe Gowda, Joint Director, Department of Agriculture, Dakshina Kannada said that a sample of a product had been sent for testing to the Central Insecticide Laboratory, Faridabad, last year. Its report said that the sample did not have any harmful chemicals.
