Supporters and opponents of three controversial farm chemicals gather ahead of tomorrow’s vote

[webfact]

Supporters and opponents of three controversial farm chemicals gather ahead of tomorrow’s vote

 

 

Supporters of the complete ban on paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos and their opponents are gearing up for a show of force today, ahead of tomorrow’s vote by the National Hazardous Substances Committee (NHSC) on whether to completely ban the three toxic farm chemicals, or to uphold its earlier decision to just restrict their use, a restriction which came into force yesterday.

 

Members of farmer associations engaged in the cultivation of sugarcane, oil pam, para-rubber, tapioca, maize and tropical fruits, led by Mr. Sukan Sangkhawanna, secretary-general of Safe Farming Federation, are due to declare their shared position over the chemicals at the Asia Hotel today.

 

He said that the farmer groups want the NHSC to postpone its decision until affordable alternatives are available for farmers, who are heavily dependent on the weed and insect killers to save their crops.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/supporters-and-opponents-of-three-controversial-farm-chemicals-gather-ahead-of-tomorrows-vote/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2019-10-21

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[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

He said that the farmer groups want the NHSC to postpone its decision until affordable alternatives are available for farmers, who are heavily dependent on the weed and insect killers to save their crops.

Ban them and the alternatives will soon materialise !

[Paul Henry]

Hotchilli obviously knows little if anything about the development, trial work, registration and safety of agricultural chemicals.The average new chemical takes 16-20 years before its first registration.Then when first released on the market it is protected by patents so this means it will be priced at the top end of the  market to recover development costs so will normally be alot more exspensive than the generic products that are being banned.An example is Glyphosate. When first released it was $20 a litre (Roundup) now there are numerous brands of glyphosate on the market selling for as low as $6 a litre ($ are Au).If there are other products currently registered that will replace the banned products they too will be priced to what the market can bear.