Watch out! Agricultural wastes are aggravating farmland pollution.

"every year, tens of millions of abandoned rice trays and millions of pesticide bottles and bags are abandoned in major grain-growing counties, and most of them are thrown into the fields, becoming pollution 'bombs' and shocking." this is the recent interview conducted by a reporter in Hunan, a major agricultural province. Many grass-roots cadres and masses reported that agricultural wastes aggravated the problem of environmental pollution.

The reporter found that in recent years, new varieties of agricultural materials, such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural films, have emerged one after another, and the varieties have become increasingly rich, which is conducive to the improvement of agricultural production efficiency. However, the increase in varieties has also led to the increase of agricultural wastes, coupled with the imperfect recycling system, such as old seedling trays, agricultural medicine bottles, pesticide bags, etc. have been discarded in large quantities in the fields, resulting in the increasing complexity of agricultural material pollution, showing a situation that "the old pollution has not been removed." the new pollution comes again.

A surge in the upgrading of agricultural materials

Speaking of the supply of agricultural materials, Liu Cuiqing, a major grain grower in Hengyang County, Hunan Province, believes that the shortage of agricultural materials in the past is gone forever. In recent years, the supply of agricultural materials is sufficient, and agricultural materials have been upgraded, and there are more and more new varieties, which have brought convenience to agricultural production.

He said: take raising seedlings as an example, in the past, they were either directly sown in the field, or after raising seedlings in the field, they were transplanted to the field to transplant seedlings by hand. Although live broadcast in the field saves time and effort, the seedlings are not strong enough. When they encounter the "late spring cold" and "Cold Dew wind", they will freeze to death in a large area. Raising seedlings in seedling field can improve the survival rate of seedlings, but the method is too backward and time-consuming. In recent years, the seedling tray has been popularized, the process of raising seedlings is no longer so tedious, the quality of seedlings is also guaranteed, the survival rate is greatly improved, but also convenient for transplanting and throwing seedlings, saving a lot of manpower.

Compared with the past, there are more and more kinds of pesticides. In the agricultural materials market in Xiangtan City, dealer Peng Jianlai vividly said that in the past, pesticides were single and toxic, and farmers' idea of killing insects was similar to "I would rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go." In recent years, this idea has been reversed, and the varieties of pesticides have been subdivided according to their uses, which are generally divided into pesticides, fungicides, acaricides, nematodes, rodenticide, herbicides, defoliants, plant growth regulators and so on.

Peng Jianlai told reporters that each type of pesticide is subdivided into many varieties, and now there are probably more than 100 kinds of pesticides on the market, with detailed varieties, more targeted administration by farmers, higher insecticidal efficiency, and fewer pesticide residues.

With the increase of the planting area of all kinds of cash crops, a large number of plastic films have entered the field of agricultural production, some have become mulch films, and some have become greenhouse films, which are widely welcomed by farmers. Hu Xiaocheng, a big grain grower in Xiangtan County, told reporters that plastic film can maintain soil moisture, raise soil temperature, and prevent some pests and microorganisms from invading crops, while greenhouses can grow out-of-season vegetables. In terms of economic benefits, these agricultural materials bring a beautiful account.

The old dirt has not been removed and the new one comes again.

Although the economic account is beautiful, many grass-roots cadres and farmers have also calculated an environmental protection account for the reporter. They reflect that with the increase in the types and use of agricultural materials, agricultural wastes are also surging, causing serious pollution problems and further damage to the already fragile farmland ecosystem.

The pollution of pesticide packaging is a clich é. However, a detailed account calculated by agricultural cadres who do not want to be named is shocking. They told reporters that the annual grain sown area of some major grain-producing counties in Hunan is about 1 million mu, and according to the habit of farmers in the south, about 3 bottles (bags) of all kinds of pesticides are used in one mu of fields in a season. as a result, as many as 3 million waste pesticide bottles and bags are produced in a year. If this account is extended to the whole province and even the whole country, the result is undoubtedly worrying.

As a "new army" of agricultural materials, the pollution caused by seedling plates is hidden and huge. A number of large grain growers told reporters that it is conservatively estimated that 50 rice plates should be used in one mu of field, taking into account the popularization rate of rice plates, double-cropping rice, and other factors, and that no less than 12 million rice plates are used in a single major grain-producing county. In addition, each rice tray can generally be used for two consecutive years, so there are 6 million abandoned rice plates in a single grain-producing county every year. Many agricultural cadres report that the rice tray is rarely recycled at present, and once it is no longer of use value, it is basically discarded in the field.

A large agricultural county in Dongting Lake once conducted a preliminary survey and found that when dealing with pesticide bottles or bags, more than 90% of farmers would choose to discard them in ridges, canals, rivers and other places, and only a small number of people would take them back to their villages. for burning and other related treatment.

According to the reporter's investigation in many major agricultural counties in Dongting Lake and central Hunan, most farmers threw seedling trays, pesticide bottles, bags, and plastic film on the edge of the field or in the ditch, and a large amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticides, heavy metals, and other pollutants were brought into the water body and infiltrated into the soil, causing serious harm to the ecological environment.

Many agricultural scientists and technicians told reporters that these agricultural wastes are difficult to degrade naturally in the fields, and it is very difficult to deal with them. A big grain grower told the reporter that the seedling plate is made of recycled plastic, so it is difficult to light it, and it is necessary to pour diesel oil to burn it. "there is a lot of black smoke when it burns, and it smells so bad that it pollutes the air."

The implementation of relevant measures is facing a test.

The reporter found in many places that the agricultural wastes scattered in farmland, land, rivers, ponds and other places constitute numerous pollution sources, large and small, and their distribution is extensive and random, which is a typical agricultural non-point source pollution.

During spring ploughing this year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection drafted the measures for the Management of Recycling and disposal of Pesticide Packaging wastes (for trial implementation) (draft for soliciting opinions), which clearly stated the division of responsibility, punishment measures, and the construction of recycling system for pesticide packaging wastes. For example, it puts forward the recycling and disposal of pesticide packaging waste, adhering to the principle of who is responsible for production, who sells who recycling, and who uses who returns; pesticide production enterprises (including pesticide import enterprises) are responsible for the recycling and disposal of packaging wastes of their pesticide products; pesticide distributors are responsible for the collection and temporary storage of pesticide packaging wastes sold; pesticide users should return pesticide packaging wastes to distributors in time and shall not throw them away at will.

However, many cadres and masses still have doubts about whether these policies can be implemented at the grass-roots level. The reporter also found that in some "beautiful villages" and pilot villages for the overall construction of urban and rural health, the recycling of agricultural waste has long been explored, but many problems have been encountered. These pilot villages have thought of many ways, but it is still very difficult to mobilize the masses to take the initiative to participate in recycling. In some pilot villages, due to the pressure of superior assessment, it was even reduced to "village cadres go to the door to collect garbage and go to the fields to pick up garbage", resulting in a lot of complaints among village cadres.

A responsible person of the agricultural department of Hunan Province told the reporter that many years ago, there was a renewable resources recovery system in rural areas, and the supply and marketing cooperative system assumed the function of recycling renewable resources, and farmers were also willing to accumulate agricultural medicine bottles and other things to exchange for some pocket money. But, on the one hand, the recycling system was shut down years ago, and it is now extremely difficult to rebuild. On the other hand, great changes have taken place in rural society, and many farmers are unwilling to pick up and accumulate agricultural medicine bottles for a little money. How to encourage and urge them to participate in recycling needs good investigation by the relevant departments.