Surrogate salesmen
Pesticides thrusted on unsuspecting farmers
the recent agriculture input subsidy scam in Rajasthan may not seem big in terms of the money involved. But it has huge repercussions. Farmers were indiscriminately distributed specific chemicals to be used in crops for which these chemicals have not been recommended by the Union agriculture ministry. It is clear that farmers are being forced to use toxic pesticides against their very wishes. What is also evident is that agricultural subsidies are highly misplaced and the wrong people benefit (see p9).
Farmers in various districts in Rajasthan were lured to buy sub-standard seeds, saplings and pesticides. Most farmers say that they never needed these chemicals but were forced to buy it as a package deal. Pesticides like endosulfan, monocrotophos, malathion and triadimefon were sold and used in fields when such application was not required at all. Strangely, despite being given all these