Wednesday 11 July 2012

Pesticides key to curb crop losses


Food production capacity is faced with an ever-growing number of challenges, including a world population expected to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2050 and a falling ratio of arable land to population. It is estimated that crop losses in India account for 18 percent of the total crop yield every year.  Indian Agriculture loses Rs 1 lakh crore every year due to pest attack integrated with inadequate irrigation facilities and climate change. Hence we need to provide our farmers improvised products which are pest resistant and which can help improve crop productivity.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), some 30%- 40% of the world's potential crop production is already lost annually because of the effects of weeds, pests and diseases. These crop losses would be doubled if existing pesticide uses were abandoned, significantly raising food prices.

In an initiative to tackle the challenges by the farmers of our country, we decided to bring a product that could benefit this community and help them reduce crop losses. Lupho-36, the insecticide has the capability to enable farmers to grow an abundant supply of food in a safe manner and prevent costs from increasing. It is effective on sucking pest of Cotton, Paddy, Caster, Cardamom, Tea, Coffee, Coconut, Mango, Sugarcane and some caterpillars on Pulses. Even after harvest, crops are subject to attack by pests or diseases
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To ensure food security for the increasing population of this country we have to increase the judicious usage of pesticides and Insecticides and Luphos-36 can play a major role in achieving this herculean task. Pesticides are the last input in the agricultural process and are important for the sustainable development of agriculture and food. Despite the fact that judicious use of pesticides can prevent crop losses and provide economic benefits to the farmers, pesticide consumption in India is limited to about 25% of the arable land.

There are various reasons of the low usage and we need to create awareness on this. Some of the reasons include fragmented land holdings, lower level of irrigation, dependence on monsoons and low awareness among farmers about the benefits of usage of pesticides. Our group has always been committed to serve the farming community and we have been carrying out several activities in the remote areas to help farmers know more about how pesticides can benefit them and how they can increase their crop production.

The country approximately loses 18 per cent of the crop yield worth Rs 900 billion due to pest attack each year.  Of the 40,000 different types of insects about 1,000 have been listed as potential pests of economic plants, 500 pests have caused serious damage at some time or the other and 70 have been causing damage more often. Therefore, pesticides have been recognised as essential in increasing the agricultural production by preventing crop losses before and after harvesting.