The owner of a plant protection drug store pulled out three bottles of “rare medicine” and told the guests: “This time, the grass won’t die, I won’t charge you”.
In a pesticide and fertilizer store at the foot of Day river dike, Hoai Duc district (Hanoi), the owner of the guava garden is complaining that the herbicide bought last time did not work. “The grass is taller than the guava, it is obvious that it is expensive to spray and die forever”, the old farmer crumpled his headdress, complaining angrily. Minh, the owner of the store, explained that it was biological and safe, so it was expensive and had to be persisted many times to be effective, but only received the resolute from the customer: “You do not sell me to other goods” .
“Drug” treat red spider on grapefruit tree outside Hanoi. Photo: Thanh Hue.
The hostess afternoon guests, into the warehouse took out three bottles of “rare medicine”. Three bottles cost less than half a bottle of biological medicine. Minh declined to name the drug, but explained to the reporter: “This drug is banned, but other active ingredients are more expensive. It took a whole day to mow the lawn with a mat, spray this little bit finished. Anything is economical ”.
Her shop has three things that keep people from buying goods throughout the 16 years: selling bear, genuine medicine and “rare medicine”. In an agricultural commune less than 2 square kilometers, there are 3 shops selling agricultural materials, refusing to sell “banned goods” means chasing customers.
Rare drugs are not rare
According to the Plant Protection Department, drugs banned from entering Vietnam are mainly due to smuggling and small scale. In the first seven months of 2016, 40 authorities smuggled drugs from Cao Bang, Lao Cai and Lang Son provinces and burned 5 tons of medicine. In May 2018, Lang Son authorities seized 3 tons of smuggled chemicals from China with more than 10,000 products of herbicides, spiders, snails, pesticides, bananas, stimulating bean sprouts. Many kinds of extreme poison have been banned in Vietnam. These drugs were later taken to Hai Duong for destruction.
“Nice products, super sharp price, you need your inbox,” the status line comes with a bottle of herbicide with a picture of a dinosaur spraying fire with the slogan “Touch and burn” posted on a Facebook group. To increase the reliability of the product, the seller commits “paraquat goods, 1 liter bottles, sprayed with two hours of dead grass”. Four minutes later, one person commented: “Is it still available?”, Promised to collect 20 boxes, thanks to sending a bus to Van Ho and Son La.
The herbicide bottle contains paraquat, which is banned from agriculture for use in more than 40 countries. In February 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam removed paraquat from the list of circulating plant protection drugs. But on 25/5 this year, many products are still offered for sale at 125,000 VND per 1 liter bottle at many public addresses on the Internet, including reputable e-commerce sites.
Vietnam’s northern neighbor is the world’s largest producer of pesticides. Vietnam is their largest market in Southeast Asia, besides Thailand. Their main export items are paraquat and glyphosate – two substances that have been completely banned in Vietnam.
But AgroNews – a Chinese agricultural technical news website based in Chongqing – at the end of 2018 it was reported that from January 2018 to November 2018, the quantity of paraquat exports from China to Vietnam following the order ban only “92% off”.
Products containing the banned active ingredient Chlorpyrifos Ethyl are listed for sale on social media on June 15. Screenshots.
On Facebook, June 15 this year, an account for sale Wusso 550EC, products containing chlorpyrifos ethyl, the banned active ingredient from February 2019. Advertisers even receive private labels if buyers need them. Two days later, another account posted 300 cases of Dosate 75.7WG and 100 cases of Haihadup 480SL. Both brand names have the active ingredient glyphosate, which is also on the banned list from April 10, 2019.
From advertising on social networks and agricultural supplies stores like Ms. Minh’s, banned drugs reached farmers, flooding the fields.
Minh has never been to any training school in agricultural knowledge. Three generations of her family has worked in the field. After the wedding day, Minh and his husband weighed lychee, longan and grapefruit orange all over the North, and packed styrofoam and sent airplanes to the West to sell. In the summer of 2003, the couple returned to their hometown, rented land to plant fruit trees, becoming the first millionaires in the commune. “It is the largest school,” Minh said, confident that his knowledge of pesticides and fertilizers was superior to the agricultural officers in the training.
In the 2000s, Hoai Duc people used to buy pesticides every time, but they were still “down the street”. Minh’s agricultural supplies store opened in 2005, being the first establishment of the whole commune. “I just sold and studied, sold the wrong way to sell properly. Farmers have taught me a lot, ”she recalls.
Nearly a year after opening, the store welcomed the first inspection team to “visit”. Minh does not have a license, must register a refresher course on plant protection drugs organized by Ha Tay province (former).
“It is only three months, but it is only two sessions a week. Nearly 100 people, all of whom sell their core life, come to roll call and play. They trained me to make sure that all of them sold me as well as I did, ”Minh summed up the course.“ No one who slips everything, anyone who speaks will receive a medal. ” After three months, Minh brought back a heap of never-before-seen books and business licenses, which helped her no longer be afraid of inspections by authorities. “As for the rare medicine, I am stupid enough to stay in the store,” Minh said.
According to the Head of the Legal Inspection Department, Hanoi Plant Protection and Plant Protection Department, Ms. Luu Thi Hang, trading of plant protection drugs has been developed on social networks, delivered via transport services, The buyer and the seller do not know each other, making detection more difficult.
In Hanoi, the inspection, management and use of plant protection drugs are assigned to the commune and ward governments. The city’s plant protection specialized inspectorate will only go once a year if seeing signs of violation to continue inspection. Before the inspection, there must be a plan to notify in advance the locality and the business and only be checked at the store.
Different types of pesticides farmers spray to spray on grapefruit. Photo: Thanh Hue.
Farmers manage themselves
In early June, a long-term distribution brought Ms. Minh an exclusion of model grass, used on sugarcane. “You can sell anything, you can spray it, the bears are very good,” he offered.
Minh and his wife trusted their partners, saw good profits, entered sales. The drug is registered on sugarcane but she sells it to the papaya garden. Four days later, the papaya owner called to catch the temple. “The garden is already over, the grass is still growing,” the customer shouted into the phone. At noon of June 14, Minh’s husband and a representative of the distributor went to the garden to calculate damage and compensate for the papaya garden owners.
Minh said “such an accident is often a fault of the distributor, I have nothing to worry about”. But her husband also acknowledges the seller as if they were cornered. Because producers often target the major crop market, small plants have virtually no specific treatment. The drug seller must “create”, instruct farmers to use medicine of this plant to treat diseases of the other plant, or mix different kinds together.
“Domestic enterprises also choose key products to register, so many crops do not yet have medicines,” said Huynh Tan Dat, Head of Plant Protection Drug Administration, Plant Protection Department.
According to Mr. Dat, businesses also tend to register a lot of content on the same product, it is difficult to know about validity and quality. Farmers therefore also can not adhere to the correct principle 4: mixing the right dose, using the right medicine, spraying the right way, quarantining on the right day.
The World Bank said that “only a small number of pesticide sellers, extension agents and farmers understand correctly about pesticides”. And mixing and using these arbitrary dosages makes it impossible for farmers to succeed in “Integrated Pest Management (IPM)” – ie instead of killing pests, they can kill both natural enemies and plants. cultivated, wasteful, toxic and even made oily pests.
While waiting for a more autonomous and balanced production, farmers like Ms. Minh’s customers will remain loyal to which drugs are both cheap and “spray one shot at a time”. And salespeople like Minh, continue the afternoon customer journey to keep the relationship. “The cost of cultivation is high, but everyone wants to eat cheap fruit, farmers have to starve,” Minh said.
According to VnExpress.net
