Use of Pesticides on Crops and Its Impact on Health

Abstract

Pesticides refer to agro-chemicals that are used for protecting plants from pests. Pesticides are classified into insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and others including plant-growth-regulators. Liberal use of agro-chemicals results in the presence of excess pesticide residues in the edible parts of plants and food grains. It is proved by many laboratory-based studies [1]. The indiscriminately sprayed pesticides and insecticides also results in the pollution of air, water and soil. Pollution reduces our life span by increasing our exposure to environment-related health hazards [2,3]. Further due to overuse of these poisonous pesticides and insecticides, these pests and insects become immune to these chemicals and become more dangerous than before. We use these poisonous chemicals to kill the damage-causing pests without knowing their impact on human health. They have the potential to kill not only pests and insects but also various beings including human beings. Why do then we use these poisonous agro-chemicals?