Sundar Tiwari, a lecturer at AFU, said that the report was compiled after monitoring 25 shops in five different village development committees (VDCs). "Suppliers have huge stocks of the banned pesticides; which they provide to farmers as per demand", he said.
According to him, almost one-third of the pesticides retailers don't know whether the pesticides they are selling are banned or not.
"Farmers in our country use pesticides excessively", said Deepak Gyawali, who has been involved with various NGOs to raise awareness of the flip side of pesticides. "However, only 10 to 15 percent of the pesticides are abserved by the plants and the rest dissolves into the environment," he added.
According to Gyawali, pesticides present in our surroundings lead to many negative effects and health hazards. Experts say that pesticides are the main cause of cancer.
"Those who consume food grown with the use of pesticides are six times more prone to cancer than those who eat only food grown with natural fertilizers", said Bhola Prashad Siwakoti, Public Health Officer (PHO) at the Cancer Prevention, Control and Research Department at Bharatpur Cancer Hospital. "Such pesticide-treated crops may also stop the growth of the featus in the mother's womb," he said.
According to Siwakoti, health personnel are not asking for a complete ban on pesticides. "There is no harm in using pesticides in measured amounts and with necessary precautions. But people often don't follow the precautions," he said.
Director General of the Department of Agriculture Yuwak Dhoj JC encourages greater use of natural fertilizers. "Pesticides should be used with a great deal of planning and control," he said adding that there is a need for more awareness about natural fertilizers.
However, JC said that clamping down on pesticides alone is not the solution. "We need to bring in alternatives to wean farmers away from pesticides; otherwise any awareness campaign would be useless", he said. The government is soon to allocate a budget for this, he also said.
Last year, following growing complains over the excessive use of pesticide in vegetables, the Kalimati Vegetable and Fruit Market in the capital had taken initiatives to improve the situation. Lab testings for pesticides and a commitment to check pesticide abuse got the public quite excited. However, the tests did not continue for long.
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