HIGI calls for tighter control of herbicide use
HIGI calls for tighter control of herbicide use
JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Indonesian Weed Scientists
(HIGI) called yesterday for a control of herbicides to stop weeds
from being resistant to herbicides.
The association's secretary general Edison Purba said it was
time for the government, industrial sector and farmers to pay
more serious attention to the use of herbicides because cases of
weeds resistant to herbicides had multiplied worldwide.
"If in the 1970s there was only one species of weed resistant
to herbicide in the United States, then in the early 1990s there
are 130 weed species worldwide which are resistant to one or more
herbicides," Purba said.
"It is time for us to manage the use of herbicide," he said.
Purba said the industrial sector and farmers in Indonesia kept
using similar types of herbicides to destroy weeds, unaware that
such a practice was no longer effective in destroying weeds and
could even make weeds resistant to herbicides.
He said the government could control the use of herbicides
through a regulation.
Purba said the government and public were not concerned about
the herbicide resistance phenomenon because so far only one case
had been reported in Indonesia, namely an edible riverine plant,
called genjer in Simalungun regency, North Sumatra.
The genjer plant in the area has reportedly become resistant
to a certain brand of the 2.4 D herbicide after being sprayed
with the herbicide for four years.
According to Purba, herbicides were still useful in handling
weeds due to the unavailability of alternative technology.
"The only way to prevent weeds from becoming resistant to
herbicides is by mixing various herbicides of different types or
using different herbicides in rotation," he said, adding that
this method was ineffective in destroying weeds which were
resistant to any type of herbicide.
The only herbicide which could destroy herbicide-resistant
weeds was paraquat, he said.
The Indonesian government, however, limits the sale of
paraquat herbicide because it is poisonous to humans. (jsk)