From Albert Oppong-Ansah, GNA Special Correspondent, Hyderabad, India
(Courtesy: Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, Global
Environmental Facility and Internews).

Hyderabad (India), Oct. 17, GNA -Mr Braulio Dias, Executive Director of
Convention on Biological Diversity, (CBD) on Wednesday cautioned developing
countries especially Africa to be very careful with the use of agro
chemical for farming.
“The unwise use of chemicals to aid crop growth has serious health negative
effect on farmers and consumers of such farm produce,” he told the GNA in
an interview on the sidelines of a news conference to launch a report on
environmental degradation and economic implications in Hyderabad, India.
The report highlighted some of the importance of biodiversity including
adequate potable water, food security and job security could be lost if
people continued to destroy nature in the name of development.
Dr Dias said it had been observed that there was excessive and imbalanced
use of chemical fertilizers by farmers.
“Aside the health implication, insect, pest, micro organism that support
plant growths are also killed by wrong combination of these fertilizers. An
example of such organism and its function is the worm that make pores in
the soil to enable air pass through to the plant”, he said.
Dr Dias suggested that ecologically friendly and organic method of farming
that would increase yield and ensure food crisis was the right option.
Pavan Sukhdev, Chief Executive Officer of the Green Initiatives for a Smart
Tomorrow (GIST) Advisory, said half of the World’s wet lands had been lost
in the past 100 years due to agricultural production, unsustainable water
extraction for domestic and industrial use, urbanization, infrastructural
development and pollution.
He said environmental degradation especially wetlands had resulted in
significant economic burden on communities and businesses.