EFFECT OF PESTICIDES ON SOIL HEALTH
Pavan Kumar V
III B.Sc. CBZ ’B’
GFGC TUMKUR
Email: pavankumarv734@gmail.com
The term pesticide covers a wide range of compounds including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, molluscicides, nematicides, plant growth.Soil can be degraded and the community of organisms living in the soil can be damaged by the misuse or over use of pesticides. Soil health management is crucial for ensuring sustainable agricultural productions and maintenance of biodiversity. Fertilizers and pesticides are a necessary evil for industrial agriculture.
“When the soil is deficient the plants are also deficient and weakened and they lose their defenses”
Some pesticide developed to boost crop yields could be doing the opposite in the long terms. Sustainable agriculture practices often use crop rotation: growing a different crop in the same soil each year. The insecticides methyl parathion and DDT showed a decrease in crop yield of about 20%. Treatment with pentachlorophenyl showed a decrease in crop yield of over 80%.
Phorate is a pesticide and an organophosphorous compound is an insecticide and acaricide that controls pests by systemic, contact and fumigant action. It is used against sucking and chewing insects, leaf hoppers, leaf minersmites, some nematodes and rootworms.
Pesticides are determined for the environment and produce considerable damage to ecosystem. The soil infertility begins after the use of pesticides after one or two year. The soil loses the holding capacity on cultivation plants absorb the pesticides which we spray it needs for its growth and yields. But, we never think about the future of soil. It deplete and loose its fertility.
The healthy soil is made up of air, water, decayed plant residue, organic matter and minerals. Increasing soil organic matter typically improves soil health but pesticide like DDT and parathion which we use in agricultural fields for yielding which cause soil infertility. Increasing soil organic matter typically improves soil health as organic matter affects several critical soil functions.
“Emancipation from the bondage of the soils no freedom for the tree”