Contaminated fields!

Millions of hectares of agricultural land and canals in the Mekong Delta each day suffer a huge amount of toxic substances from chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in cultivation.

Poison thrown away bluff

In the middle of January 2007, we returned to An Binh hamlet, An Cu commune (Cai Be, Tien Giang). In area 4, there are about 30 ha of land for production of 3 crops / year, intercropping land for cultivation of crops. In a new watermelon field 2,000m ² , the fruit was as big as the biceps but many ropes were damaged and yellow, the farmer named Dinh was trying to spray fungicides, fertilizing the melon.

Around the melon field we counted dozens of pesticide packs with every brand thrown around the shore and drifted away under the slow flowing water channel. Spraying out the potion, I casually tore the bottle of new bottles and the bag of medicine to be thrown into the canal.

Carefully review the shell of the medicine bags that all brands clearly state: 'Keep out of the reach of children and destroy the safe place', we asked: 'Why don't you bury or burn a sack to avoid toxicity?' , Dinh smiled innocently: ' Everyone does that here, do you see anyone burying, burning?'.

Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong, a resident of An Binh hamlet, said that for a long time, people in the area did not dare to use canal water to eat and bathe because the water source was seriously polluted due to the amount of fertilizer and pesticide residues. down in the field.

'A few years ago this canal has a lot of fish and shrimp but now there is no live fish. Many people bathing in canal water are itchy, scary so no one dares to use it anymore ' - Mr. Cuong said.

Pesticide packaging is disposed of everywhere by carefree farmers, despite water pollution, living environment, and soil poisoning (Photo: HA, TP)

Not only in An Binh hamlet area, but also anywhere in the Mekong Delta rural area, it is easy to see a lot of bottles, containers of pesticides with all kinds of brand names scattered everywhere. Master

Le Huu Hai, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cai Lay district, urged: 'This situation is very common, making the cultivation environment (land and water sources) seriously poisoned, affecting livestock crops and health. human'.

Contaminated fields

At Cho Moi isle of An Giang province, which is famous for vegetable cultivation, poisoning land is also a topical issue for farmers. According to statistics of the agricultural sector, since 1995 the district of Cho Moi has built 76 dyke sub-regions to cover 23,000ha of agricultural production land, bringing the cultivated area up to 75,000ha / year with the number of rounds. rotation of land averages nearly 4 crops / year.

At present, farmers in the district tend to reduce the area of ​​rice cultivation, increase the area of ​​vegetables, because the cultivation of cash crops can earn 300 million VND / ha / year, the cycle of land exploitation is up to 6-7 cases / In the year when the backs of rice planting three crops, only 42 million VND / ha / year was collected.

But the price to pay for land capture turned 6-7 rounds of production / year is not small. Mr. Le Thanh Mang, owner of 1.4ha of land, both planting and growing rice in Hoa Trung hamlet, Kien An commune, told us that the land over the years has been overexploited by humans so it is seriously poisoned by the amount of fertilizer. Chemical, agricultural materials penetrate the soil very high.

Other vegetable growers, the situation is not quite what it is. Meanwhile, in the quadrangle of Long Xuyen and Dong Thap Muoi, even though rice productivity can still reach 18 tons / ha / year, the situation of toxic soil caused by farmers abusing chemical fertilizers and pesticides is also at the press level. red action.

Many agricultural officials in the provinces said that in many of the factors that led to stunting, twisted leaves dwarfed tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields in the Mekong Delta in the past time, partly due to heavy poisoning of the land, no longer available. fertile, so the resistance of rice is reduced.

Hand in hand with pollution?

According to Dr. Nguyen Huu Chuoc, head of Can Tho University's Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, the state of the field is becoming more and more toxic. There are many factors that lead to poisoning of the fields, but it can be said that the localities that have applied each other to embank the dykes thoroughly for many years have reduced the fertility of the land, thereby increasing the abuse of farmers. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides to force crops to produce high yields, less pests are the most prominent cause.

The dike prevents the exchange of natural water to clean up the environment, causing residues, toxic substances in the process of agricultural production and human activities, which are deposited and left in the soil, causing soil poisoning.

Meanwhile, Master Le Huu Hai said that for a long time, scientists, agriculture and local authorities could only mobilize farmers to consciously destroy pesticide packaging and avoid abuse of chemical drugs. In order to minimize the harm to the living environment, there is not any sanctions to handle the indiscriminate dispersal of poisons from pesticides into water sources and fields so farmers . are not afraid.

According to Mr. Hai, there is currently no adequate study to determine the toxicity of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the Mekong Delta provinces, but it can be said that pollution levels are very serious. important and want to clean up need a very long time and a huge amount of money.

Hung Anh