By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Green tide, remember it? That was years ago when our vegetables were blanketed by dangerous green-colored chemicals. That was a scare that we didn’t like happening. Some measures were done to control it but they didn’t last long. They were not sustained.
That’s almost the ‘normal’ way for us, react to a given problem that will arise then forget it since people will have short memories? In a jiffy, everything will be forgotten anyway. We never learn.
Now we have a similar situation in our hands with great risk implications to human health and environment.
Results of a study by a team of researchers from the Benguet State University headed by Dr. Romeo Gomez, graphically shows alarmingly high levels of many toxic pesticide residues in at least three vegetables and two weed species in Mt Data, Bauko, Mountain Province and Loo, Buguias, Benguet. The team identified more than 60 of such residues, many of which have levels higher than the maximum residue levels (MRL) set by the World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The fact that weed species sampled near the vegetable gardens contained similar pesticide residues indicate bio-accumulation of such residues in plants other than the vegetables grown and possibly, even insects.
If you take into account that Mount Data (Bauko) hosts the headwaters of at least three important river systems, it makes the situation of graver concern. Vegetable growers may actually be destroying biodiversity both in the farm and in such river systems.
A few years back, a combined team of researchers from BSU and SLU, headed by Dr. Carlito Laurean, sounded a similar alarm in an even more comprehensive research done in three towns in Benguet where vegetables are intensively cultivated. They found that the soil, crop and ground water were contaminated even by heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead resulting from the agricultural practices employed by gardeners. Farmers involved were found to be afflicted with various respiratory and heart-related diseases.
Although this earlier result had been addressed by the province through advocacy of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), the effort was not sufficient. A lot of the farmers have not embraced GAP in their farms.
The continued use of bad agricultural practices will decimate our vegetable industry, as we will be swamped by cheaper but cleaner and healthier farm products from nearby countries which have already shaped up in their production practices. This could happen in 2016 after all trade barriers in ASEAN will be torn down in Dec. 2015. No more convenient excuses of veggie smuggling.
Definitely, the present situation begs for answers to the question: “Are we ready for the ASEAN trade liberalization in 2016?”
Let’s not forget that there have been so many instances already in the past when our fruit exports (e.g. banana and mango) to Japan, China and Australia, among others, were dumped or returned due to some minor abnormalities like ripening of just one banana ahead of the rest. To think that the fruit exports were produced using good agricultural practices! If remedial measures are not properly implemented, we will be left sulking in the corner of insignificance. It is in this kind of situation where regulatory policies should be in place, scrutinized and timely action undertaken.
Instead of pro-actively proffering preventive measures, we normally attend to things when problems are already there. Sometimes the problems already require a gargantuan effort to solve them, involving greater resources to contain them. In the process, we spend more time, money and even manpower. Invariably, it slows down progress since we need to look back instead of focusing forward to address other concerns.
Some say that farmers are now cognizant of GAP and that they already know what to do. We are ready for 2016! If this is reflective of the common sentiments of concerned officials, I fear for what will happen to us three years from now.
There are a lot of indications that continuing bad agricultural practices result in increased pest and disease control costs, less healthy underground water and lower production volume in the long run.
There is a need to “sacrifice” now to build a better tomorrow for the vegetable industry.**
