Seminar On Minimum Residue Levels (MRL) In Rice Crop Held At LCCI

The country might face a ban on exports of rice to the European Union due to excessive use of pesticides

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jul, 2021 ) :The country might face a ban on exports of rice to the European Union due to excessive use of pesticides.

The experts expressed this apprehension in a seminar on "Minimum Residue Levels (MRL) in Rice Crop" held at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) on Wednesday.

They argued that European Union had already issued an alert for Pakistan while 161 consignments of rice had been rejected by the European Union and the USA due to high ratio of residue in rice crop. They said growers did post-harvest sprays of pesticides that was the main reason of high ratio of residue level in rice crop. Only registered pesticides should be used for rice crop.

Provincial Minister for Agriculture Syed Hussain Jahaniya Gardezi was the chief guest while LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah presided-over the seminar. Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry, Convener LCCI Standing Committee on Rice & Former LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik, Pir Nazim Hussain Shah, Dr. Tauqir, Dr. Mubarak Ahmed, former LCCI Senior Vice President Ali Hussam Asghar, Senior Vice Chairman Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan Faisal Jahangir, President Kissan Ittehand Khalid Khokhar and Chairman Pakistan Crop Protection Association Saad Akbar spoke on the occasion.

The provincial minister said: "Basmati Rice is our pride and its quality is the best in the world." He, however, added that developed world had set strict standards for food safety, citing that in 2017, Indian rice exports were banned due to non-compliance with the standards and the benefit was shifted to Pakistan.

The minister said that the government was well aware with the issue of excessive use of pesticides. In 2018, a committee was constituted which formed parameters in this regard. He said that there was a dire need to educate farmers. He said that a state-of-the-art laboratory had been established at Kala Shah Kaku and the rice exporters should avail this facility. He said that the government was taking measures to control the use of harmful chemicals on the rice crop.

LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah said that traditionally, rice had been number one food crop of Pakistan in terms of earning foreign exchange for the country. He said: " The importance of Rice in our exports can be judged from the fact that in 2019-20, the exports of rice stood at 2.27 billion Dollars (around 10 per cent of our total exports in that year). Even in the first eleven months of 2020-21, the exports of rice have surpassed two billion dollars." The LCCI president said, "Considering this importance of rice, we have to take extra care of all the requirements of rice importers, especially in developed markets and European Union to maintain our regular share in international market." He said that the purpose of arranging this seminar was to sensitize all the stakeholders who were directly or indirectly involved in the production and exports of rice about Minimum Residue Level (MRL).

LCCI Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry said the agriculture sector was the backbone of the economy of Pakistan. He added that agriculture and economy were vital for each other.

Convener LCCI Standing Committee on Rice and former LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik said, "We need to be proactive as Western and European countries have further tightened the food safety measures. Pakistan must further reduce Minimum Residue Levels (MRL) in rice crop, otherwise, we cannot maintain the exports of rice over two billion dollars."The use of fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides and herbicides etc had been on the rise for the last couple of decades. In our market, there were national and multinational companies which were selling these chemicals. "Since our farmers or growers are sensitive to price so they hardly bother to know about the hazards of using cheaper and inferior chemicals on their crops. We need to educate growers to be smart while using the amount of pesticides and at the same time, we also need to make the manufacturers and suppliers aware of worse effects of substandard chemicals on final crop," he concluded.