Pesticides: Impact on human and environment

During the process of food production, our crop faces numerous problems where pest (Disease, Insects, and Weed) incidence is the major one that causes about 40 to 70% of total production loss. To cope with the problem, farmers around the world use pesticides, which is a chemical compound used for the control and management of those pests.

It is cheap and rapid in action when it comes to pest control. However, it has various health and environmental hazards.

When those chemicals come in contact with our body, it leaves a negative impact on us either acute or chronic, such as skin irritation, eye burn, blindness, diarrhea, reproductive, neurological, respiratory problems and if consumed it may cause lethal effect too, depending on its toxicity.

Most of the Farmers don’t know the right application method. It is often seen that they apply more than the recommended dose too. It causes pesticidal residues to be leftover in the field which enters directly into our food system or it may be consumed by the natural enemies of those pests. These chemicals can also reach nearby water sources through runoff or leaching and impact the biodiversity over there. When we or other creatures consume them it gets more toxic, thus leading to further health hazards like cancer. This is also the reason why various beneficial insects, fish, birds, and their consumers are on the verge of extinction. Due to pesticides, the beneficial soil microbes are also hampered, hence the productivity of the land declines too.
The pest it controls has also been found to be reluctant to its effect therefore the application dose has to be increased year by year.
Pesticide seems to be a better solution to the pest but it has other negative enduring effects than its intended use. So people are developing and following the Non-Pesticidal method of pest control like sustainable farming, organic farming, or IPM practices where its use is restricted or very limited.