Publish Date : 02.10.20

Global Ban on Swiss Pesticide ‘POLO’ needs attention in India

Syngenta AG is a global company that produces agrochemical and seeds and is based in Basel Switzerland. The pesticide POLO used widely by cotton farmers all over has been taking attention since 2017 as there were about 700 cases of pesticide poisoning reported from the Yavatmal District in Maharashtra. It is also been heard that there is a wide variety of concoctions of pesticides used in Cotton and Polo is one among them. DNA reports about many farmers who had died and hundreds of others who were in the hospital after inhaling poisonous pesticides while spraying crops.

Polo specifically its active agent diafenthiuron was responsible for the poisoning and also found a common link between the people. When the cotton plants grow above their heights the farmers are forced to spray them closer to the mouths which results in them inhaling the pesticides.DNA reports that Syngenta noted that Polo "has been successfully and safely used by Indian Farmers across the country for the last 14 years," and that diafenthiuron is registered in 25 countries worldwide. POLO is again in news at a time when the government"s draft order to ban 27 deadly insecticides is welcome and long overdue.

Reports by Hindu states that three farmers from Yavatmal district of Maharashtra filed a suit in a civil court in Basel, Switzerland seeking monetary compensation against global agrochemical giant Syngenta. Among the applicants reports Hindu that two women have lost their husbands to pesticide poisoning while spraying Syngenta’s pesticide POLO on cotton fields in 2017. It is heard that there are three cases filed against SYNGENTA.