Hi guys, welcome back to our blog! The case study that I will take you through today will also center around cotton. Specifically, we are now looking at Pakistan. Do you know that Pakistan is the world’s 4th largest producer of cotton (Better Cotton Initiative, n.d.). It mainly cultivates cotton for its fibre for the fashion industry and for cotton seed oil. A large amount of pesticides are usually used to cultivate the cotton crop and Pakistan does just that, especially in areas like Punjab and Sindh (Tariq et al., 2007).
A brief look at Pakistan’s history, they have been using pesticides to control pests since the 50s. However, it was not till the 80s that the selling of pesticides was privatised (Tariq et al., 2007). Specifically, in 1989, there was a five-fold increase in pesticide consumption in that year but the yield in agricultural crops remained the same. This privatisation of the sales of pesticides enabled the private companies to influence farmers to use more pesticides than the recommended amount. This was done through the use of various media outlets and advertisements (Tariq et al., 2007). Thus, more often than not, these farmers are the ones who do not have sufficient knowledge about the pesticides they are using and are the ones who are the worst affected from the effects of these pesticides.
Furthermore, 70% of the farmers are illiterate and do not understand the brochures that contain the safety measures and warnings about these pesticides. Therefore, the chances of misuse of pesticides is very high in Pakistan due to the lack of awareness of its dangers. In fact, upon closer analysis, the most impacted group of farmers are women because cotton picking is usually done by them. Frankly, female farmers are more likely to suffer more severe symptoms as compared to men. These symptoms include ‘skin irritation (27%), headache (26%), nausea (12%) and gastroenteritis (10%)’ (Tariq et al., 2007, p. 1116).
Apart from these detrimental effects on human health, pesticides do indeed affect the environment adversely, be it soil or water. The focus point I would like to talk about here is on how these pesticides affected the water bodies in Pakistan. Areas like Punjab and Sindh which practice heavy cotton farming are most affected by the pesticides. There were traces of pesticides detected in their surface water, groundwater and their freshwater resources (Khan et al, 2020). A lot of these pesticides are carelessly disposed of or come from the run off from these cotton fields which thereby pollute these water bodies. Unfortunately, it is difficult to pinpoint the origin as they come from a Non Point Source (NPS).
The aquatic life living in these water bodies are vastly affected by these pesticides. It has been noted that cottonseed, various feed, milk and fishes contain traces of chlorinated pesticides (Tariq et al., 2007). Some of these pesticides like DDT are also able to kill off aquatic life due to its toxicity. To make things worse, a higher dosage of pesticides will be used one after another as some of these pests are able to resist the pesticides. They will then mutate and develop resistance to these pesticides. Hence, the farmers in Pakistan would have to continuously use an excessive amount of pesticides to get rid of these pests. This ends up as a vicious cycle known as the ‘pesticide treadmill’ (Banuri, 1998). Gradually, the price of cultivating cotton will increase and further lead to damaging the ecological balance and the environment.
The above are merely some of the incidents that have affected the farmers and the environment through the use of pesticides in Pakistan. As we can see, these types of environmental issues stem from big systemic problems. From the never ending demand of cotton to satiate these fast fashion companies / consumers, to the privatisation of pesticides and the farmers’ limited knowledge about them. Many of these mentioned problems are deeply political and they cannot be solved overnight purely through scientific means. More often than not, profit is placed before anything else when it comes to the capitalistic world we live in. The use of pesticide in cultivating cotton is of no exception. But, can the vast amount of money we make revert the damage we have caused to the people and the environment? That is something to think about.
References:
Banuri T. (1998). Pakistan: environmental impact of cotton production and trade. In: Paper prepared for UNEP project on trade and environment. International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 15-23.
Better Cotton Initiative. (n.d.). Pakistan. Retrieved 4 September 2020, from https://bettercotton.org/where-is-better-cotton-grown/pakistan/
Ghumman, F. (2016). Punjab plans to buy more GM cotton seed varieties. Retrieved 5 September, 2020, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1302383
Khan, M. I., Shoukat, M. A., Sardar, A., Arif. H., Niazi, N., Azam, M., Bashir, S., Ashraf, I., Qadri, R. (2020). Use, Contamination and Exposure of Pesticides in Pakistan: A Review. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 57(1), 131-149.
LinkNews. (2018). Punjab leads cotton production in country as crop sees overall growth. Retrieved 5 September, 2020, from https://mettisglobal.news/punjab-leads-cotton-production-in-country-as-crop-sees-overall-growth
Tariq, M. I., Afzal, S., Hussain, I., Sultana, N. (2007) Pesticides exposure in Pakistan: A review, Environment International, Volume 33, Issue 8, 1107-1122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2007.07.012
