Plagued with tea mosquito bugs, the tea industrys plan to stop increasing pest attacks with the hazardous dimethoate has raised safety concerns among planters inAssam.
Central Insecticides Boards (CIB) recent approval to use the pesticide in tea gardens may lead to compromise safety standards of Assam tea, cautioned a section of leading tea planters of the state. Even those planters who are not opposing the move said maximum residue level (MRL) must be maintained. The Centres Banning of Insecticides Order, 2020 stated the pesticide is an organophosphorus compound and highly toxic and said its alternatives were available for use. Dimethoate was banned in 31 countries and the ban was in force in EU, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Suriname to name a few.
According to the minutes of the 446th meeting of the Registration Committee (RC) OF CIB, held on April 12 and published on Friday, ad-hoc approval for the use of dimethoate against tea mosquito bug in tea plantations has been accorded for a period of one year. The committee also directed the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) and Kannan Devan Tea to submit the residue data as per the guidelines of CIB&RC expeditiously and the same will be examined by the concerned technical experts and SPPR,FSSAIand the final reports will be placed to RC for a final view.
Dimethoate is definitely a toxic compound but the crop needs a safe interval between spraying and plucking.