Good Agricultural Practices and Monitoring of Herbicide Residues in India

Abstract

Herbicides have proved very effective for the control of weeds in cropped areas in India. However, the herbicide use in the country is far less as compared to insecticides and fungicides. While persistent herbicides remain in crops, soil, ground and surface water for a considerable period of time, they may pose hazard to human and animal life as well as the environment. From risk assessment point of view, herbicide residues are monitored through multi-location supervised field trials at various centres of ICAR-sponsored All India Network Project (AINP) on Pesticide Residues and DAC-sponsored central sector scheme on Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level at IARI New Delhi, and All India Coordinated Project on Weed Management (AICRP-WM) at the Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur. Besides focusing on weeds and weed management strategies, these laboratories generate globally acceptable data under good agricultural practices (GAP) for export certification and international trade. So far, edible commodities in India have been found to be mostly safe from herbicide residues. Since in future, the herbicide use is likely to increase, therefore herbicide residues problems will be more frequent and may have implications for human health.