Silent Poison: The Hidden Dangers of Pesticide Pollution in Pakistan’s Farmlands

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-591-1_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Pollution; Pesticide; Soil characteristic; agriculture; Crop production

Abstract

Pakistan is an agricultural country, with the sector contributing approximately 18.9% to the country’s GDP and offering employment for nearly 42.3% of the workers. Pakistan, where the growth, economy, progress, development, economy and food security heavily depend on agriculture, pesticide contamination of farmland is becoming a growing environmental concern. While pesticides boost crop yields and help control pests, the hidden perils of it on agricultural soils is significant and repeatedly overlooked. In Pakistan, farmers commonly rely on chemical pesticides as their primary approach to pest control. The excessive use of these pesticides is partly due to limited awareness of sustainable alternatives and integrated pest management (IPM) practices, leading to soil quality deterioration and barren lands. Unregulated pesticide use is not only contributing to land pollution but is also leading to water and air pollution. In Pakistan, most pesticides are applied to cotton crops, approximately 70–85% of total pesticide then comes wheat, sugarcane, maize, potatoes, rice, and tobacco. This study focuses on the in-depth investigation of pesticide application across a piece of one-acre land for the purpose of research. The targeted area is in the tehsil of Jalalpur Nangyana, District Sargodha. This study also analyzed the production of sugarcane, wheat and potatoes under the influence of several pesticides. The yield helped in analyzing the soil quality briefly discussed in the methodology along with the results that summarize the long-lasting impacts on soil health. Spotlight will also be provided to a few recommendations which can help improve the agricultural practices in future.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Irza Khan
AU  - Erum Aamir
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/01
TI  - Silent Poison: The Hidden Dangers of Pesticide Pollution in Pakistan’s Farmlands
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Climate Change and Emerging Trends in Civil Engineering (CCETC 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 142
EP  - 152
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-591-1_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-591-1_12
ID  - Khan2024
ER  -