BANGKOK, 19 April 2019 (NNT) -After the decision by the government to continue allowing the use of three chemicals in the farming sector for another two years, namely Paraquat, Glyphosate, and Chlorpyrifos, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives will be holding training of targeted farmers ensuring safe usage of these chemicals.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) has outlined its plan on the uses and limitations of these three chemicals in the farming sector, which will be promulgated through five ministerial regulations currently pending official publication in the Royal Gazette.
In the initial phase, the Department of Agriculture will hold a training session for its 240 regional officials on 24-25 April to further deliver information on usage limitations, potential harm, health and environmental effects, and effective use of these chemicals to another 2,000 officials in related agencies, who will be reaching out to some 1.5 million farmers between June to September. The department will also be training some 50,000 chemical sprayers in June and July, as well as including some 70,000 officials from the Ministry of the Interior such as village headmen and permanent secretaries from subdistrict administrative organisations who will act as local inspectors of chemical usage.
The MOAC Permanent Secretary Anan Suwannarat said today he is positive the new measure will help raise awareness on safe chemical usage, and reduce the need to import these three chemicals by half, namely 20,000 tons of Paraquat, 48,000 tons of Glyphosate, and 900 tons of Chlorpyrifos. The MOAC also plans to extend its chemical usage reduction plan to other chemicals used in farming in the future, should this campaign be successful.
