FUNGICIDE USE: IS IT OUT OF CONTROL?

courtesy: tamu.edu

Efforts to monitor the levels of pesticides and herbicides and their effects seem to have increased in the past few years. 

 

But one chemical compound, fungicide, has yet to be addressed.  Its use is escalating, and there is not a lot of oversight on its use or abuse.

 

After a rust epidemic in 2005 wiped out most of the year's soybean crop, many farmers are now using fungicide as a preventive measure. But the use is largely unmonitored.  And fungicides can be highly toxic.  

 

Its heavy use is showing up in waterways in state where the adoption of the chemicals is on a large scale: Maine, Idaho and Wisconsin.  

 

The unfortunate problem is that while some information on fish toxicity is available, the sutdy of the impact on humans and other animals is scant to nonexistant.

 

The problem seems to be more in the use farmers make of the fungicide than the chemical itself.  The farmers in fact have gone from using the chemicals as a reaction to a fungus finding, to a preventive spraying habit that is garnering them higher yields.  And that is where the use of chemical fungicides might be spiralling out of control.

 

In 2012, the US geological Survey has entrusted a chemist, K. Kuivila, to address the problem of fungicide pollution and its impact on the environment.  The results were that 75% of surface water and 58% of underground water sources were contaminated with fungicides of one kind or another.  

 

So far the levels seems to be below the threshold of toxicity in the water.  Toxicity for smaller organisms that is, but since the chemicals dissipate quickly, one testing in one area might not tell the whole story.

 

What makes the matter worse, is that the manufacturer does not have information on the quantities to be employed in farming.  That means that farmers have no indication on what would be excessive doses of chemicals in the crops.  

 

The problem then is a lack of guidelines from industry and a lack of data from the regulating agencies that can draw a real picture on the use and impact of the chemicals.

 

And as observed before, farmers have noticed that using the fungicide results in higher yields, thereby serving as a strong incentive for the protracted and continuous use of the chemicals.  To make matters worse, the chemicals are now marketed in such a way where the producers are making suggestions that the chemicals increase yield because the fungicides act on much more than fungus spores, but also improve plant health by protecting it from drought, heat, cold and ozone damage, as well as other bacterial and viral infections.  This of course translates into an incentive on the use of the chemicals even when the fungus is not present.

 

That of course, is reason to worry.  Use of chemicals when there is no threat of infection is wrong, because it introduces unnecessary chemicals in the environment that worsen the load of the already existing wash-off of chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers from farms and other sources.

source: Scientific American 2.22.13