Horticorp started special organic vegetable counters three years back and sold 'safe to eat' vegetables at a very high price. The KAU detected high level of pesticide content in the organic vegetables sold by the agency Agriculture Minister blamed it on previous government and claimed that the products now sold at the counters are indeed safe.
The state-run Horticorp (Kerala State Horticultural Product Development Corporation) started procuring organic vegetables directly from farmers and sold it among public after the vegetables from neighbouring states were detected with an alarming presence of pesticide residues.
But now, the consumers in the state are in for rude shock after lab tests at Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) proved that the ‘organic vegetables’ sold by Horticorp under the ‘safe to eat project’ were not safe at all.
The KAU found that the vegetables with the organic tag and sold at a higher price through Horticorp outlets in the capital of Kerala were contaminated with lethal pesticides, busting the claims of the safe to eat project launched three years back.
The Horticorp used to procure organic vegetables from farmers at a price 15% higher than the market rate. The agency sold these produce at a very high rate through its special counters, at almost double the price when compared to the open market.
The KAU collected samples from the outlets of Horticorp in 2013. When the test report was out, the agency blamed it on farmers and threatened to take action against them.
Former Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran said that the 'safe to eat project' was flawed in its inception. The farmers should have given training before venturing into organic farming. The farming was done without checking the soil for pesticide and chemical residues. "The long process of preparing the soil for organic farming was bypassed in an attempt to launch the project in a hurry," he criticised.
A farmer, who was part of the list of organic farmers under the project, said that the authorities did nothing to check the production process. Even though KAU experts were supposed to conduct regular inspection at the farms, none turned up, he added.
Responding to Asianet News, Agriculture Minister VS Sunilkumar claimed that the veggies sold through the Horticorp organic counters now are safe indeed. He blamed the previous UDF government for setting the standards low and for the laxity in keeping a strict check on contamination.
