Again, as in the USSR, people are poisoned in cotton plantations

On June 10, 24 cotton growers were poisoned on cotton plantations in Saatli region. On June14 in the cotton fields of the Terter region 14 peasants suffered, are four were sent to Baku due to a serious health problem. On June 19 in the cotton fields of Imishli region there was a third, and the most mass poisoning: human rights activist Oktay Gyulaliyev said that more than 150 people appealed to doctors. He said that about ten cotton growers have been placed to the intensive care unit of the central district hospital. Gyulaliyev accused the authorities of plundering the country's oil revenues, they are now going to fill the state budget with slave labor in cotton plantations.

On the same day, Minister of Agriculture Inam Kerimov reported on the satisfactory state of health of poisoned people. The Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case.

Deputy Fazil Mustafa explained the poisoning in cotton plantations by the ignorance and absence of professionalism of the leaders of cotton production, saying that harmful drugs were used. "It is unacceptable to return to Soviet traditions that do not take into account the human factor in the production of products. The days have passed when airplanes were pollinated from fields and people at that time were working on plantations." The MP called for a transition to modern means, not dangerous for humans, and to investigate what happened.

Minister I. Kerimov accused private companies engaged in the cotton business of poisoning the peasants. He denied accusations of using chemicals saying that "the use of chemicals against insects is necessary ... Great responsibility lies with private companies for the cultivation of cotton ... we must wait for the results of the investigation. These incidents, possibly, could occur in connection with the quality of imported medicines or non-compliance with safety rules by private companies," the minister said.

In July 2017, President Aliyev approved the "State Program for the Development of Cotton Growing in Azerbaijan for the Period 2017-2022". In October of the same year, Matanat Avazova, deputy director of the National Department for Environmental Monitoring of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, promised that the protection of the health of the peasants was on high level, and environmental protection acts function in Azerbaijan. The peasants will not suffer.

"Azerbaijan has undertaken international obligations under the signed agreements and conventions on environmental protection," Avazova stressed.

The Ministry conducted a survey of the residual amount of pesticides in the soil used in collective farm times. After the 1980s, the use of hazardous pesticides was suspended at the international level," explained Avazova to the Sputnik-Azerbaijan agency.

"The experts of the Ministry carried out an inventory of pesticides, which were then transported to the Jangin cemetery (a polygon in 53 kilometers from Baku). Pesticides are placed in bunkers made of concrete slabs, and buried in wells. Today there is no need in monitoring of soils for the presence of pesticides. There are no state farms, and a special permit is needed to enter the private lands, but if a signal comes from the regional department that a hazardous substance has been applied, we can make occasional monitoring, take a sample of soil, and do the tests," said Avazova.

Today, various drugs against plant diseases and pests are created on a biological basis. "Of course, they are more expensive, but international organizations have stopped producing hazardous pesticides, and we have to buy modern drugs," the expert said.

Сегодня различные препараты против болезней растений и вредителей создаются на биологической основе. "Конечно, они стоят дороже, но международные организации прекратили производство опасных пестицидов, и приходится приобретать современные препараты", - сказала эксперт.

In the Ministry of Ecology there is a special list of drugs that are prohibited from being applied in the country. By signing a number of conventions, Azerbaijan has undertaken the responsibility not to use dangerous chemical compounds. "Very strict control is applied to imported drugs, and they will not be applied without the expertise of the Ministry of Ecology," Avazova stressed.

The question arises: If drugs dangerous to humans are no longer produced and consequently, companies in Azerbaijan could not buy them, then why did the cotton growers suffer? Turan "wanted to get pesticides, production of which has been stopped," as the official of the Ministry of Ecology asserts, and easily found the website of a Russian company offering to sell any pesticides - https://tk9.ru/in/pestitsydy/. The company proposes to deliver to supplier for money any goods dangerous for the person. It turns out that there are no problems with the acquisition of hazardous chemicals.

Companies engaged in cotton production in Azerbaijan can apply biological plant protection methods successfully used since the times of the USSR. In 1952, in the Odessa region, to prevent cotton scoop was successfully used Trichogram oocyte - live insects that infect the eggs of the scoops before they hatched a larva that devoured the cotton plant. But biological agents are much more expensive than chemical agents. However, in developed countries, human life is valued higher than the wholesale price of an agricultural product. In some federal states of Germany, the proportion of the biological method for controlling plant pests reaches 97% of the complex of plant protection measures.

Judging by the recent mass poisonings, in Azerbaijan a cheap chemical method of cotton protection has been chosen, as the most effective. During chemical processing of plants perish up to 90% of pests of plants. But chemicals do not harm only human health. Chemicals also destroy useful microorganisms, accumulate in the soil, and after a few years the land becomes unsuitable for agriculture.

Agrotechnical method is known and has long been used for the protection of crops. At different times, depending on the timing of the propagation of harmful insects, it is necessary to use technical means for soil and plant cultivation, scientifically-based alternation of crops in crop rotation, optimal application of soil cultivation methods, the correct combination of fertilizers. The agrotechnical method requires great human and technical resources. Soil and people do not suffer, but the cost of cotton will be higher than in chemical processing, since the agrochemical method is more laborious, requiring more labor for people and equipment.

The application of biological and agrotechnical methods of protecting cotton will lead to a rise in the price of final products and the unprofitable nature of cotton production. It is impossible to sell Azerbaijani cotton at an expensive price in the world market, because according to an anonymous specialist, "our cotton cannot be compared with the Chinese ... Our is regarded as the fifth type (medium-fiber), which is an additive in the production of yarn while the Chinese one of the best in the world ... ".

Termination of cotton growing is inevitably fraught with the loss of office for the heads of local executive authorities. After all, President Aliyev set them the task to bring the production of raw cotton from 35.2 thousand tons per year to 500 thousand tons by 2022. This means that while preserving the current methods of cotton protection that are disastrous for the peasants, the number of poisoned cotton growers will increase in the same proportion. Will Azerbaijan reach the millionth mark to repeat the unprecedented "record" of the Soviet era? How many rural workers will be poisoned?

In 1980-1984, when Azerbaijan ranked among the "millionth" for collecting cotton, a pesticide was used in the republic in the range of 4.8-237.5 kg of active ingredient per hectare per year. In this indicator, Soviet Azerbaijan surpassed even Turkmenistan, where the annual upper limit of the applied pesticides was 87.7 kg per hectare.