[asia-apec 1091] Food Security, Pesticides & Environment

[Dr. Aslam Pervez Umrani]

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S L A P
Sustainable Livestock & Agriculture Production
May & June 1999
Bimonthly-Newsletter of Progressive Agriculturist &Pastoralist Association
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/3770/
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Content:

Food Security
Pesticides Use
IPM as a tool
Nutrient cycling
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Food Security and Environment:
Special Report: Dr Aslam Pervez Umrani & Syed Munawar Ali Shah

Food security can be defined as the state in which all persons obtain a
nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable diet at all times through
local non-emergency sources. Food security broadens the traditional concepts
of hunger, embracing a systemic view of the causes of hunger and poor
nutrition within a community while identifying the changes necessary to
prevent their occurrence. Food security programs confront hunger and
poverty.
    In many cases, the environmental price of food production is the loss of
natural vegetation and biological diversity, soil erosion, and surface and
groundwater depletion. Inevitably, there are divergent views about how land
should be used, whether for industrial crops, food, nature conservation or
industry. These conflicts exist for coastal and inland areas and common
property resources such as forests, grazing lands and even oceans.
    Clearly defined procedures are needed to satisfy different needs and
interests in society, not only of current generations but also taking into
account future needs. This means involving stakeholders, farmers, local land
managers, non-governmental and governmental organisations, consumers and
others, and evaluating the environmental costs of different land use
options.
    Democratic structures and public opinion on environmental issues help to
identify preferences and set appropriate land use goals, including the need
for access to food, and an adequate diet for a healthy, active life.
Transformation of current and future food production systems requires a land
or resource-use planning approach and the formulation of explicit goals for
alternative land uses. Planning is also necessary to define incentives for
sustainable use, and to promote changes of attitude and values toward
improved land use options. Today's severe pressure on marine fish stocks is
an example of how misguided policy and lack of planning can lead to
indiscriminate use of a common natural resource. Particularly in Sindh,
Pakistan, political and bureaucratic sharks have engulfed the marine
resources of province on the name of so-called development.
A consensus exists among non-governmental sector of the Pakistan that new
approaches should be adopted for economic development with emphasis on food
security, social development and environmental security. These approaches
enable to reduce poverty and save the environment of Pakistan. Attainment of
Sustainable-Development, however, calls for an urgent reversal of the
current trends requiring:
1. Sustainable increases in agricultural productivity.
2. Harmonising population growth with the level of food production.
3. Better stewardship of the environment.
4. Better and equitable use of water.
5. Utilisation of Science and Technology in the promotion of Food Security
and Sustainable Development.
6. Consciously integrating the environmental concerns into mainstream
economic thinking and to reflect these concerns in the design and
implementation of development programmes.
7. Develop indicators for the evaluation of development programs and
policies achieving agricultural, demographic and environmental transitions.
    Experience has shown that countries in which there is good governance
reap the benefits through more stable and sustainable economic growth. This
involves
promoting dialogue with all interest groups and sharing decision-making
authority and control over resource allocation to district and local levels.
A more enlightened role of government also implies working side-by-side with
NGOs, farmers' associations and the private sector. The marginalisation of
women from decisions and resources also has numerous negative effects on
food production. Government is in the best position to assist women in
sensitising them to environmental concerns by promoting interventions that
improve their access to education and training, energy resources, and
credit. Government must undertake the complex and difficult tasks of land
tenure reform, channelling investment towards rural areas and enacting
supporting policies that reflect a national ethic of sustainable
development, reflecting, in turn, their circumstances.
    Present definitions of economic viability primarily consider
productivity and profitability. They do not take into account
sustainability. Neither are the costs of harmful effects on the environment
included in the System of National Accounts, which countries use to measure
their net economic gains and losses. The loss of environmental goods and
services is particularly detrimental to poorer countries, whose economies
are more dependent on natural resources and are thus more vulnerable to
their loss.
    Intensive effort is needed to strengthen and test methodologies for
national environmental accounting. This includes pricing the costs of soil
and water degradation, of depletion of plant nutrients, loss of forest cover
and biological diversity, practices that are economically and
environmentally unsustainable.
    The environmental costs of producing different crops (i.e. the potential
pollution or resource degradation intensity) also needs to be calculated in
order to understand the conditions required for successful production. For
example, agricultural income has to be adjusted to allow for various kinds
of environmental damage, such as soil erosion, acidity, salinity and loss of
plant nutrients, that arise from food production.
Sustainable food security: requirements for a new era:
    The understanding of food security has evolved over the years through
increasingly integrated attention to the social, gender, environmental,
technical and economic dimensions of the problem. The challenge for the
future will be to develop a peaceful, stable political, social and economic
environment for Sustainable-Development. Also full and equal participation
of men and women are also important for obtaining a food security and
sustainable development
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Problems Associated with Pesticide Use & Misuse
By: Dr Mushtaq Hussain Jokhio
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Pesticides are mainly used to control and eradicate disease vectors of
desirable plant species, which in turn improve agricultural productivity. In
today's world, particularly in developing countries, the use of pesticides
have become so important that they are linked with improvement of human
welfare (Otter et al., 1980). Because the losses of crops caused by pests
are higher in developing countries, specifically under mono-cropping
systems.
    Despite all the benefits of pesticides, there is world-wide concern
about their use, because pesticides injure non-target organisms, such as
human, livestock, wildlife, insects, birds, fish and plants. According to
Monbray (1988) 600,000 tonnes of pesticides are exported to developing
countries. Studies have shown that less than 0.1% of applied pesticides
actually reach the targeted pests and remaining 99.9% have potential to move
into soil, water and in atmosphere (Young & Weigniann, 1988). Therefore it
is necessary to consider the negative effects of agricultural pesticides on
human, livestock and other living organisms, also look at the ways to
minimise the impacts of these negative effects.
Effect of Pesticides on Humans:
    Pesticide poisoning in developing countries occurs in variety of ways.
The group most at risk is farm worker, who mixes and applies pesticides in
the field, also enters in the field after spraying. In 1976 massive
poisoning among spray men of Malaria Control Programme occurred in Pakistan,
and more than 7500 field workers were affected and five of them died (WHO,
1978). These injuries were result of mixing pesticides by hand and other
poor practices (USAID, 1977).
    The contamination of wheat with Parathion group led to 100 deaths in
South India. In 1980, 250 villagers were poisoned in North India due to
wheat contamination with BHC, during storage. According one report from
Philippine when farmers used Genochlorine pesticides, the death rate in
newborn children increased by 27 times in countryside. In December 1987,
pesticides poisoning in Hong Kong, due to eating Methamedophos contained
spinach affected about 116 people. In California, hundreds of people were
affected, when they ate pesticides treated melons. In south India, a
mysterious disease affected 200 people in 40 villages, which began with
intermittent pain in the hip and knee joints. This crippling deformity was
linked with pesticide use (Bhat & Kirshan, 1977). Although there are no
figures available about Pakistan, the newspapers report do indicates that
pesticide's poisoning prevails in Pakistan.
Effect of Pesticides on Livestock:
    Increasing use of pesticides has contributed in livestock diseases and
mortality in rural areas of Pakistan. In December 1997, in Landhi Karachi,
40 buffaloes and cattle died due to unknown reasons. After laboratory tests
it was identified that these animals died due to pesticide poisoning. After
feed analysis it was found that their cotton seed cakes were contaminated
with organo chlorine pesticide residue. In Tando Adam (Sindh), a herd of
cattle and buffalo was affected due to pesticide poisoning, while the herd
was grazing in fallow land besides cotton field, because cotton field was
sprayed with pesticides.
Effect of Pesticides on Environment:
    There are several processes that are active in transporting pesticides
within or out of ecosystem. First process is volatilisation, in which
pesticides evaporate in the air due to its higher vapour pressure. Second is
movement of pesticides in dissolved state, this movement occurs in
pesticides, which are water soluble in nature. Therefore, they leach out via
macro-spores in soil, and contaminate ground water. Many pesticides
transferred through air and during storms, pesticides can reach large urban
cities, and cause eye problems and breathing problems in humans as well as
in animals. Pesticides also kill beneficial insects and plants, which are
essential for natural balance of our ecosystem.
Conclusion:
An organisation called Pesticide Action Network has prepared a list of
hazardous pesticides. Eight of these hazardous chemicals are commonly used
in developing countries. It is moral duty of developed and developing
countries to ban all these chemicals. Some pesticides are banned in
developed countries, but they are still sold and used in developing
countries. Therefore it is the ethical duty of governments and researchers
of developed world to stop all those multinational companies that are
involved in such dirty business practices
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Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Components and Implementation
By: Ghulam Hussain Mallah
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Pakistan is an agricultural country. More than 70% of the population is
involved in agricultural related activities. Agriculture supplies most of
the basic domestic food requirements plus 55% of the country's export
earnings. In Pakistan human population is increasing at the rate of 2.9%
annually; on the other hand, agricultural production worth of 2500 to 30000
million Pak rupees is lost annually due to plant pests and diseases.
Therefore, pesticides use is increasing every year to reduce production
losses. For example, total consumption of pesticides was 3404 tonnes in
1977, which increased to 5000 tonnes in 1982.
    Increasing chemical inputs is not the only solution to getting higher
agricultural production; particularly, increasing net profit per acre. Every
year increase in the use of chemical fertiliser and pesticides have resulted
in lower net profits and caused serious damage to human health and
environment.
    Looking at the above problems in our country and toxicity of pesticides.
It is important that the use of all types of pesticides should be gradually
phased out and replaced by plants resistant to pests and diseases. Till such
time IPM can be used as a tool to control the pests and reduce the
pesticides application.
    IPM is the best combination of cultural, biological, behavioural and
chemical measures, which yields the most cost-effective environmentally
friendly and socially acceptable insect, disease and weed management in
given situation. In IPM, narrow range, selective, short-term pesticides are
used to control pest population, if they are not controlled by other means.
Components of IPM:
1. Cultural control
2. Biological control
3. Use of pheromones
Use of microbial insecticides
4. Pest scouting
5. Rotational cropping
Safe and efficient use of pesticides:
1. Continuos of pesticides causes an insect resistance problem, thus use
them for limited period
2. Pesticides only used when pest population crosses thresh hold level.
3. Use right pesticide and full dose.
4. Well trained operator or technicians may be allowed to spray pesticides
in the field
Establishing the IPM Approach
The use of IPM techniques require a good scientific knowledge in the
following areas:
1. The plant growth pattern of locally cultivated varieties, distribution of
the major pests and a destination part of the plant, which can be attacked
by the pests
2. The effect of different planting dates on pest incidence
3. The major natural mortality factors regulating the abundance and
population dynamics of the pests
4. The impact of the control procedures on the pests
5. Rotational cropping
6. Use of local natural chemical resources against  pests (Neem Tree)
    It is therefore concluded that chemical method of pest control alone is
not the only solution of the pest problem. There are several other
alternatives to reduce the pest population. The concept of IPM is one of the
important tools regarding controlling the pest population, which broadening
the scope agro-ecosystem. IPM integrates several environmental friendly
control methods and it does not entirely depend on use of pesticides.
However, some times it is difficult to make balance between human food
requirements and environmentally friendly methods to reduce pest attack and
production losses.
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Livestock and nutrient cycling: Maintaining an ecosystem balance
Dr Rashid Ahmed Nizamani & Dr Nasrullah Panhwer
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Crop farming takes out the soil nutrients, because farmers plant their
crops, harvest the plants and typically cart them away to the homestead.
After that the grain is removed, which is either eaten by the family or
sold. The remains of the plant may or may not be returned to the fields.
Obviously, there is a net loss of nutrients from the cropland, a loss that
can be dramatic if crop residues are not returned to the soil. Inevitably,
land that is cropped year in, year out without any nutrients being added
will not continue to support the same yields, hence crop yields fall. The
role of livestock in helping put nutrients back into soil is well known by
the world's small-scale farmers and by soil and livestock experts. But in
developed countries, where artificial fertilisers are abundant and
affordable, this role of livestock is in danger of being forgotten. In the
developed world, livestock are now seen as consuming resources and producing
pollutants. The contribution that livestock make to crop production is
strongly influenced by human population density, cropping intensity and
climate. At one extreme, in arid lands unsuitable for cropping, pastoralism
is the only option for sustaining livelihoods. With rising population
density and higher rainfall, there is increasing interaction between
livestock and crops-livestock come to rely on crops for part of their feed,
while crops benefit from nutrients delivered as faeces and urine from the
livestock. At the other extreme, in densely populated, intensively cropped
regions, such as South-East Asia, livestock are highly valued by farmers as
a means of producing fertiliser, converting plant material quickly and
efficiently into a form that can be applied to the soil to maintain crop
yields.
Two routes from soil to soil
    Why involve livestock in cycling nutrients in crops back to soil? Why
not just put the crop residues back on the land and let them decompose?
There are several reasons why livestock are important to this process on
small-holder farms. Firstly, cereal crop residues are often relatively slow
to decompose Grazing cattle on crop residues in semi-arid West Africa.
Livestock manure and urine are vital sources of nutrients for crop
production in many parts of the developing world. Pose in soil, so it can be
a long time before the nutrients in the crop residues become available to
the subsequent crop. Also, while the soil microbes are breaking down the
crop residues, they can actually tie up soil nitrogen for their own use,
reducing the amount of nitrogen avail-able to plants. Thus, it may be months
before the nutrients are available to plants.
However, if one feeds crop residues to ruminant livestock, microbes in the
animal's stomach break down the plant materials rapidly. The excreta, such
as faeces and urine contain nutrients in forms that are more readily
available to plants. The nutrients not excreted are converted to valuable
animal products like milk, meat, fibre, tractive power etc.
Livestock do more than speed up nutrient turnover through the process of
digestion. As animals eat the palatable parts of the crop residues-the
leaves for example-inedible fractions such as the stems are trampled
underfoot (particularly if animals are stall-fed), where they mix with the
faeces and soak up urine. Trampling by the animal breaks up the stover,
speeding the decomposition process and increasing the capacity of the stover
to absorb urine. Nitrogen in animal urine is commonly 'lost' through
volatilisation, but using crop residues to soak up the urine improves
nutrient 'capture'. 'Animal-processed' inedible fractions of crop residues
compost faster, making the nutrients in them available sooner.
    The semi-arid zone includes parts of 48 developing countries in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, home to roughly one-sixth of the world's population.
This is one of the most fragile, vulnerable agro-ecological zones. Its soils
are sandy, contain little organic matter, are poorly structured and hold
little water. Many of them crust over easily when they dry, making it
difficult for seeds to germinate, and they are all easily eroded by water
and by wind. Large parts of the world's semi-arid lands can only be used
sustainably by ruminant livestock, and then only if their numbers are
controlled and they are free to move over long distances, following the
region's sparse and erratic rain. But increasing human population is
reducing the freedom of livestock herders to roam and driving farmers to
crop land that once was under permanent grassland, exposing the soil to
erosion and depriving livestock of grazing. Even where cropping is feasible,
the traditional fallowing system has broken down under the pressure to
produce more food, hastening the decline in the already low soil fertility.
The high price of inorganic fertilisers, inappropriate policies and
difficulties in getting agricultural inputs to rural areas mean that few
farmers use improved crop varieties or fertilisers. Manure is often the only
fertiliser used by smallholder farmers in this zone.
    The easy answers, such as not to cultivate fragile land and to limit the
number of livestock kept on the land, don't work in the real world. What
farmers and livestock owners need are options that help them produce the
food and income they need to provide for their families and to contribute to
the development of their societies. One such option -indeed one of very few
workable options-is to integrate cropping and livestock rearing in ways that
allow each activity to support the other, minimising competition for
resources. This is the approach needed in fragile areas.
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SLAP's Team
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Honorary Editor:
Dr Aslam P. UmraniPhD in "Sustainable Agriculture"
Assistant Editors:Ghulam Hussain MallahRashid Ahmed Nizamani
Printing and Distribution:
Syed Munawar Ali Shah
Tariq Ali Baloch
Arts and Design: Zulfiqar Ali
Publisher: Shahnaz.Palijo
Address:
Editor SLAP:
60/ Al Abass housing society, New Wehdat colony,
Hyderabad, Pakistan.
Email:
 agr726 at hyd.zoooom.net.pk
Email list to join:
sindhorg at egroups.com
Internet site to visit:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/3770/

Dr Aslam Pervez Umrani
 (PhD in Sustainable Agriculture),
Editor: Sustainable Livestock and Agriculture Production (SLAP),
Address: House No. 60, Al-Abbas Housing Society,
New Wehdat Colony, Hyderabad, Pakistan.
Email: agr726 at hyd.zoooom.net.pk
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/3770/