CropLife India pioneers farmers’ education drive on the use of Personal Protective Equipment across Maharashtra
CropLife India will reach out to more than 4.5 lakh farmers on the Responsible Use of Crop Protection Products and ensure availability of PPE kits through retail outlets over the next three years
January 18, 2018; Pune: CropLife India today, rolled out an extensive awareness drive for farmers on the importance and use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Responsible Use of Crop Protection Products, in a ceremony held at Narayangaon, Maharashtra. Present on the occasion were Shri Subhash Katkar, Chief Quality Control Officer, Maharashtra, Mr. Tatya Saheb Kolekar, State Agriculture Officer, Mr. Vijay Khedkar, District Quality Control Officer, distributors, retailers, delegates from member companies and other officials.
Through the project, CropLife India aims to make PPE Kits easily available at retail outlets for farmers. This will be done through the member companies’ distribution channels in Maharashtra. CropLife India has collaborated with Vegetable Growers’ Association of India (VGAI), an association working with farmers towards their empowerment, to raise awareness on the responsible and safe use of Crop Protection Products along with usage of Personal Protective Equipment. VGAI have engaged enthusiastic graduates and post-graduates in agriculture, trained by CropLife India member companies for effective knowledge transfer to farmers with the objective to build a Sustainable Model for making PPE‘s available to farmers through retail outlets.
The project will be initiated in five districts of Maharashtra, namely Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar and Sangli. In each of these districts, the project implementation will be supported by local government bodies, farmer associations and Kisan Unions, and locally operational NGOs. Departments of Agriculture at state and district level, agricultural universities, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras will support the outreach effort through communication channels targeted at farmers and their families.
Speaking at the launch event in Maharashtra, Mr. Brij Uberoi, CEO, CropLife India, said “The campaign around PPE will not only educate the farmers, but also help in mitigating the risk of unsafe handling of Crop Protections products and empower them and their families towards achieving safety and security. The retail model will ensure that the importance and use of PPE is promoted every time the farmer purchases Crop Protection Products. Our outreach efforts will target the rural communities at a scale never seen before and drive awareness across multiple channels so that both education and equipment is made available to the farmers”.
Through a sustained campaign around PPE adoption and use, CropLife India promotes responsible use of Crop Protection Products towards the goal of making PPE available at a reasonable cost through retail channels. The campaign to raise awareness around the purchase of PPE will impact over 4.5 lakh farmers every year. Over the next three years, the campaign also aims to support smallholder farmers in the state.
Shri Subhash Katkar, Chief Quality Control Officer, Maharashtra valued the scale and reach of the CropLife India project saying “CropLife India has the full support of our State and district administration, along with social sector organisations in achieving the goal of educating 4.5 lakh farmers on safe use of Crop Protection Products and ensuring the adoption of PPE over the next three years. This campaign by CropLife India and its members will have a steady trickle down effect as it is designed to promote peer-to-peer learning among farmers and their families, ensuring the future generations of farmers receive the training they need to practice safe and sustainable agriculture”.
Lack of awareness and source of getting the Personal Protective Equipment amongst Small holder farmers and Spray operators has always raised a concern on the risk of unprotected exposure while handling and applying Crop Protection products. CropLife India’s outreach has been operative, involving organisations at the grass root level to spread awareness amongst farmers on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and the importance of using appropriate Personal Protective Equipment.
The project will spread awareness amongst farmers, on a wide range of topics such as transportation and secure storage of Crop Protection products, understanding the label, judicious and responsible use of Crop Protection products, personal health and hygiene, use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), correct spraying techniques, maintaining sprayers and nozzles and triple rinsing of used containers.
