Now paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos are banned, what do farmers use?

PHOTO: sugar-asia.com

In just two weeks the ban on paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos kicks in – a total ban on the three controversial agri-chemicals.

Now officials are ramping up efforts to find effective alternatives for the popular agricultural herbicides and pesticides, especially the two herbicides (maybe this would have been a good idea before they imposed the ban?).

Thai PBS World reports that the working committee, tasked with finding an alternative is making it clear that the alternatives must not be ‘chemicals’. The panel is being headed by Agriculture Permanent Secretary Anant Suwanrat.

Currently, there are 73 approved bio-products which have been proved to be effective in controlling insects and plant diseases, but the panel admits they are not effective against weeds.

Mr. Anant says that the working committee has been considering contingency measures to help farmers cope with anticipated rising production costs resulting from the ban on the use of paraquat and glyphosate.

“Initially, heavy machinery will be employed to get rid of weeds, but this approach has limitations because there are not many such machines available and they are more costly than herbicides.”

“Bio-herbicides should be the solution. The Land Development Department has made progress in its research on the use of microbes for killing weeds.”

An advisor to the working committee recently made a field trip to a sugarcane plantation belonging to Surin Khanthong, a farmer Suphan Buri, north west of Bangkok, who has been using microbes to kill weeds for the past seven years.

The farmer told Alongkorn that the microbes kill the weeds but have no impact on the environment. He also said that he found there are more earth worms and insects, which feed on insect pests and, more importantly, the costs are similar to using the, now banned herbicide, paraquat.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World