(exclusive) herbicide spraying Hongdou 01 "the government suddenly opened up" fixing weeds "as a defoliant for red beans, which had an impact on the food safety of the environment, and the agricultural sector criticized the retrogression of the policy.

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In the past, red bean farmers mostly used the herbicide "paraquat" as a defoliant to unify the drying time and degree of red bean plants to facilitate machine harvesting. However, after February 1, 2020, in order to promote the exit policy of highly toxic pesticides and avoid suicide, the government banned paraquat completely, which not only had a great impact on the red bean industry, but also triggered a huge backlash in the agricultural sector.

But unexpectedly, in less than four months, the Ministry of Weifu released the latest pesticide residue allowance on May 20, in which the newly ordered herbicide "Gushu Cao" can be used for drying red bean plants, with an allowance of 2 ppm. In this regard, the Prevention and Inspection Bureau of the Council of Agriculture said that in the near future, it will announce the relevant usage and scope as soon as possible, so that farmers can have more choices when harvesting red beans.

However, due to the high water solubility and mobility of herbicide (the medicine is transferred from red bean pods to red beans), scholars are worried that if it is not used properly, it may cause disasters to the aquatic environment in rural areas and worries about food safety. Farmers and peasant associations, which respond to the government's failure to use herbicides as defoliant, think that the government cannot stick to its position and beat itself in the mouth. "otherwise, why did paraquat be banned but open to firmly kill weeds?"

Red bean fields using herbicides (upstream and downstream data photo) the Ministry of Weifu opened the herbicide "fixing weeds" to spray red beans, causing an uproar in the agricultural community.

On the day of this year's inauguration ceremony, the Ministry of Health and Fuzhou issued a press release amending 40 agricultural pesticides, 148 residue tolerances, and 12 drug residues in animal products. On the details of these 200 items, one of them is to increase the herbicide for use in plant drying for red beans, with a residue allowance of 2 ppm.

In response, the Animal and Plant Disease Prevention and Quarantine Bureau of the Council of Agriculture confirmed that, based on the fact that farmers used to carry out pesticide treatment before red bean harvest in order to improve the efficiency of plant drying and mechanical harvesting, the Council of Agriculture has carried out field experiments of fixing and killing weeds in agricultural improvement farms in Tainan and Kaohsiung respectively in October 2017 and February 2018, according to the guidelines of pesticide management law. After determining the criteria of efficacy, non-toxicity and the safest residue. It was passed at the meeting and sent to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for approval of the residual allowance.

Zou Huijuan, deputy director of the Prevention and Inspection Bureau, further stressed that farmers have such needs, and the government must respond to farmers on the premise of taking into account the needs of plant protection and agricultural production. However, when the agricultural sector received the news one after another, not all farmers reached a consensus.

Farmers are puzzled by the reopening of herbicides as defoliant, and peasant associations are also angry.

One afternoon at the end of May, the heavy rain just stopped. The farmers' meeting room of the extension unit of the Peasants' Association in Meinong District of Kaohsiung City has successively entered several rice farmers who pay public grain. Most of these farmers grow rice in the first stage, fallow in the second stage, and grow red beans in autumn and winter. There was a stir at the scene when the Ministry of Health and Fuzhou announced on May 20 that the herbicide "solid herbicide" could be used as a defoliant for red beans.

"Why was paraquat banned in the first place?" , "paraquat is better and cheaper, and decomposition is better than fixing weeds. As a result, it opens up and kills weeds." , "the government can't resist the pressure, it can't hold on any longer!" "won't people who cooperate with the government without herbicides become nerds?" When the farmers talk to each other, everyone scrambles to talk, leaving no gap at all.

Chung Ching-hui, director-general of the Meinung District Peasants' Association, said that in order to ban paraquat, the Council of Agriculture worked hard to promote the replacement of paraquat with nonanoic acid and sodium chlorate, and willing farmers were also willing to cooperate. As a result, they are now open to fixing and killing grass. "isn't the government beating itself in the mouth?"

Chung Ching-hui further stressed in a disgruntled tone, "does the government feel that the nonanoic acid and sodium chlorate, which have replaced paraquat, have failed and that there is no better choice for defoliant for red beans than paraquat, but paraquat cannot be restored?" that's why you open up the herbicide? "