Spurt in pesticide-laced vegetables across India

NEW DELHI: It is well-known that vegetables sold in major cities contain pesticides, but it has now emerged that these harmful chemicals are present in alarmingly high doses in greens across the country. 

A report by the agriculture ministry showed that there has been an almost two-fold increase in the number of samples having pesticides above the permitted maximum residue level (MRL) in vegetables, fruits, meat and spices in the past seven years. In 2008-09, 1.4% of samples tested failed the MRL test (183 out of 13,348 samples) while the figure went up to 2.6% in 2014-15 (543 out of 20,618 samples).

Vegetables accounted for over 56% of the samples which had more MRL than the limit set by the food regulator. The major culprits were green chilli, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, okra, tomato, capsicum and coriander leaves, according to the annual report on Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level (2014-15). The samples were picked up from mandis, retail shops and also from farm gates. 

The maximum number of failed samples in most test centres was from the vegetable family. For example, in Anand, out of 54 samples with MRL over permissible level, 42 were vegetable samples. It was 17 out of 34 samples in Kalyani, a suburb of Kolkata, and 14 out of 15 in Solan.

In Delhi, the situation was equally alarming. Out of 41 samples with high presence of pesticides, 31 were vegetables. These included spinach, coriander leaves, capsicum and okra. A large part of vegetables available in Delhi is grown along the Yamuna and in nearby regions. The data showed that in Gurgaon, of the 24 failed samples, 11 were vegetables. 

Similarly, in Mumbai, out of the 38 samples with high pesticide content, 25 were vegetables and in Port Blair, all eight failed samples were from this category. In Hyderabad, 27 of 51 such samples were vegetables and in Jaipur, it was seven out of 10 samples. 

Recently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had proposed regulations for heavy metal content in a whole range of food items including vegetables to hold traders accountable and also to persuade Indian farmers to do responsible farming and adopt good practices. 

"In developed countries, consumers get safe food, including fresh vegetables. Once we have standards and there is a system in place to carry out tests instantly and disseminate the information to people, that will create an atmosphere where everyone in the production and supply chain will behave responsibly," said a government official. 

Interestingly, the agriculture ministry's report showed that the number of samples having high dose of pesticide was more in samples picked up from mandis than the ones collected from the farm gate.