The latest report released by Pesticide Residue Analytical Laboratory (PRAL) of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) at College of Agriculture, Vellayani, has stated that organic labelled items collected from private shops are found to have been contaminated and the presence of the chemicals banned in the state and insecticides not recommended for specific crops has been detected in some of the vegetable samples. 

The items, sold through ecoshops functioning under Krishibhavans, have been found to be safer for consumption, added the report on samples collected between January and June 2018.

The heartening fact was that hazardous chemicals were not detected in any of the fruit samples tested and the samples of vegetables found to be highly contaminated were not those commonly cultivated in the state. Though spices collected from the open market are found to contain no pesticide residues, cardamom samples collected from Idukki district were detected with unsafe chemical content, indicating injudicious use of pesticides in the crop.

Among the 553 fruit, vegetable and spice samples collected from Thiruvanathapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Kannur and Kozhikode districts, pesticide residues were detected in just 31 (5.6 percent) samples, of which vegetable samples were only 5.4 percent.

In the samples of beetroot, chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves and mint leaves, residues of fungicide like Difenoconazole and insecticides like Imidachloprid, Bifenthrin, Chlorpyriphos, Profenophos, were detected. Most of the crops, the open market samples of which revealed pesticide residues, were not commonly grown in Kerala, which makes it all the more difficult to trace their origin and initiate corrective measures.

Samples of red amaranth, beans, green chillies, cucumber, snake gourd and cowpea sold with organic label collected from organic vegetable outlets, Ajowan and Kashmiri chilli powder were detected with residues of hazardous chemicals.

Insecticides like Lamdacyhyalothrin, Quinalphos, Ethion, Profenophos, Ethion, Bifenthrin and Fenopropathrin detected in these items belong to the yellow label category (which indicates highly poisonous).

Moreover, the insecticide Profenophos has been banned in Kerala since 2011. The fact that residues of such chemicals is detected in certain samples makes it imperative to implement measures to prevent the entry of banned insecticides to border districts.

Pesticide residues were detected only in a single sample each, in green chillies and snake gourd, among samples collected from ecoshops. However, it is disturbing to note that residues were detected of yellow labeled insecticides like Ethion and LamdaCyhyalothrin.

This warranted extreme caution on the part of the state agricultural departments and strengthened measures to popularise and enforce the use of organic insecticides. The studies revealed that ecoshops were relatively safe centres for the public to depend upon to procure organic vegetables and fruits.

Another matter of grave concern was that residues of Malathion were detected in a single sample of cardamom, which is a spice crop grown in the ecologically-sensitive high-range ecosystem of the Western Ghats. Since the use of such chemicals in such zones will have adverse implications in the midlands and the coastal ecosystem as well, corrective steps have to be initiated on a war footing.