Thanh Nguyen Commune Farmers' Association collects pesticide packaging on the site!

Thanh Nguyen Commune, Thanh Liem District, is a purely agricultural site; the main job is farming with an extensive production area, and people grow rice 02 crops/year. Using pesticides in production is inevitable to prevent incests and improve production and economic value.

Now, pesticides are necessary with the increase in pests that destroy farm. However, farmers habitually discard medicine bottles and caps at the edges of fields or in canals after using pesticides. This practice has negative consequences, directly affecting the users' health and the community.

To solve that situation, since 2020, the Commune Farmers' Association has developed and implemented the model "Collecting protection packaging." The commune has installed 60 collection tanks in the fields and 02 collection points in Thuong Dai Vuong Village and Kim Lu Village.

In implementing this model, the Standing Committee of the Farmers' Union of the commune met with associations and agricultural technicians to actively propagate, campaign, and analyse the model's meaning so that farmers understand and voluntarily participate.

People's knowledge has grown since there was a collection site for chemical containers, pesticide packaging, and government advertising. Following usage, all pesticide packaging is collected. The collection of pesticide packaging has also enhanced awareness of spraying according to the protocol.

The model has become operational after 03 years of deployment. Farmers have progressively developed the practice of collecting bottle caps, packing pesticides after use, and storing them in containers, considerably lowering the problem of dumping into fields and canals, contaminating the environment, water, and soil, and negatively impacting health.

Most recently, on September 20, 2023, the Thanh Nguyen Commune Farmers' Association's Standing Committee mobilised officials and farmer members from around the commune to simultaneously collect pesticide packaging in the fields. All fields in 6/6 villages, totalling 74 individuals, gathered 420kg of pesticide and herbicide shells of various types and transported them to the transit location for processing in line with regulations.

It can be seen that the Thanh Nguyen Commune Farmers' Association's concept of "Collecting pesticide packaging" has been beneficial in raising awareness of Climate Change among farmers. This basic approach must be duplicated in many communities to contribute to contemporary and Eco-friendly agriculture while protecting the environment.

Source: website portal of the Ha Nam Province Farmers Association