BANGKOK, April 24 (TNA) — Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Grisada Boonrach said he ordered subordinates to quickly undergo procedures towards the limited use of paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos.
He said that five announcements of his ministry to impose their limited use was published in the Royal Gazette on April 23 and would take effect in 180 days.
Before the imposition of the ministerial announcements, concerned officials must be trained on the control first. They included 240 officials of the Department of Agriculture and about 2,000 officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension and the Rubber Authority of Thailand and the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board. The officials would in turn train 1.5 million farmers nationwide from June to September on the limited use of the three farming chemicals, Mr Grisada said.
About 50,000 workers hired to spray the chemicals would be trained in June and July and about 80,000 local administrators would be assigned to check the use of the chemicals.
The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry limits the use of the weed-killers, paraquat and glyphosate, to sugarcane, oil palm, cassava, maize and fruit plants. The pesticide, chlorpyrifos, is limited to killing pests of flowering plants and crops and stem borers of fruit plants.
To use the three chemicals, farmers must show evidence of their relevant training and can buy the chemicals at amounts appropriate to the scales of their plantations only, the minister said.
Importers and traders of the chemicals would be checked, he said.
When his officials find their substitutes, his ministry would ban the three hazardous chemicals right away, Mr Grisada said. (TNA)
