In our living planet, increase in the human population demands more resources. The emerging need for more goods and services greatly influenced the conventional trade patterns. This leads to trade liberalisation among countries.
Increasing trade liberalisation in countries with weak environmental policies, has raised concerns about the adverse, environmental consequences of trade.
As a result of weak environmental policies, trade liberalisation in most of the developing countries results in shifts in the areas of production, exports, and more pollution.
This trade liberalisation has also enhanced the fast movement of many different organisms around the world.
Introduction Of Alien Species
Nowadays, one of the major adverse, environmental consequences of trade is the introduction of alien species in an ecosystem through trade.
Alien species are also known as exotic, introduced non-indigenous or non-native species (Shafik, 1994). The alien or exotic species in an ecosystem is, as the name implies, those species which do not belong to that particular ecosystem.
Normally, in an ecosystem, these nonnative species can be introduced either purposefully or accidentally, through human agency. Usually, alien species are introduced for economic or aesthetic purposes in a new region.
The problems associated with these invasive species are that they can multiply in a short time period, and slowly destroy their surrounding ecosystem and other native species, and hence, human economic interests also.
Impact On Agricultural Production
The conflict between farmers and nonnative species starts much earlier, because of its adverse impact on their agricultural production. However, the issue received limelight once it started making an impact on ecology and economy.
Many invasive species have entered Asian and African countries during the colonial period, under European rule (Dean, 2002). It was mainly introduced for fodder, food, energy, and ornamental purposes.
Most of the exotic species fall in two categories: either plants or invertebrates. Most of the members in these two categories have a negative impact on the agricultural field.
Exotic weeds in the agricultural field usually decrease the availability of water supply, either by overconsumption or polluting the freshwater.
Agricultural yield also decreases with an increase in the cost of controlling weeds. Many alien pests including worms and flies also create a financial burden on the farmers in two main ways.
Inadequate Solutions In The Global South
Firstly, native pest controlling methods cannot control them since they are exotic to the ecosystem, so the farmers have to start spraying heavy pesticides and insecticides. This is not economical for them.
Secondly, heavy insecticide and pesticide application over crops reduces its export quality. It gets rejected or restricted by many countries.
The methods which are used to control these exotic species can create health-related issues because of their toxic composition. There are many international treaties, conventions, guidelines, and agreements, to reduce this problem.
However, they have not worked effectively in the Indian scenario, and in other countries in the global south. The main reason for this is most of these methods are insufficient to combat and prevent alien species effectively.
Developing sustainable solutions can address this problem effectively.
Trade And Alien Species In India
In a country, alien pest species can enter by flying over the boundaries, and in the case of weeds, they enter either through the ballast water of a ship, or simply grow gratuitously. In such a case, it is very difficult to trace these species’ arrival.
However, most alien species reach other countries through airports and dockyards, in the cargos of imported agricultural goods, or through items carried by tourists.
In order to trace out such entries, many countries have plant, animal, and health inspecting facilities located at their trans-border points.
Liberalisation of trade through globalisation, paved the way for exotic species to enter India and other countries in the global south.
In the current scenario, international trade and e-commerce have advanced a lot. Nowadays, alien insects have been transported from one geographic region to another through courier packages also.
All Imports Undergo Screening
The Destructive Insects and Pests Act (1914) governs all the agricultural imports in India. For the effective implementation of this legislation, all the major airports, seaports, and trans-border railway stations, have plant quarantine units.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs is the controlling authority of these plant quarantine centers.
Normally, there is a phytosanitary certificate that should be present with agricultural imports. This certifies that there isn’t any weed or pest infestation in the imports.
The issuer of this certificate is the government of the exporting country. The agricultural products with a phytosanitary certificate don’t have to undergo further inspection, other than the DPPQS (Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage) sample test.
If there is an agricultural product that has been imported without a phytosanitary certificate, then the exporting country is obliged to inform India about the same. In such a case, the product is fumigated with methyl bromide and issued a phytosanitary certificate.
The fumigation process is also carried out by the DPPQS. The time taken for the fumigation process purely depends upon the quality and volume of the product. Normally, it lasts from two to 48 hours.
Half Of Our Plant Quarantine Units Non-Functional
The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare issued a list of plants whose import has been banned, and a list of weeds which are not allowed to enter the country. All agricultural imports should follow this list, but a lot of the times, these sanctions get diluted due to the negligence of officials.
As of now, India has 108 plant quarantine units. Out of this, only 57 centers are functional. Half of the plant quarantine centers are not working properly because of a shortage of employees.
Also, there are reports related to clearance of consignments which have fake phytosanitary certificates. In the case of animal quarantines, it acts as a nonexistent element in trade.
This negligence makes the entry of alien species to India easier, and ultimately, it started ruining India’s agricultural economy in the past decade.
In the past 15 years, India has faced around 10 severe invasive pests and weed attack in the agricultural sector. This indicates our agricultural sector is vulnerable to attacks by nonnative species.
In India invasive species affecting 1% of the country’s fauna, and around 116 alien pests have been identified as of now.
Fall Armyworm Attacks Maize Farms
A native of America, the fall armyworm has spread through trade routes to Africa and Asia. In India, the fall armyworm arrived in 2018 and it spread all over the country in a very short span of time.
Attack of fall armyworm have been mostly reported from maize farms in around 20 states. Among them, Karnataka faced severe crop damage in 2018.
After rice and wheat maize is India’s third most important cereal crop. The production of maize decreased by 3.2% in 2018, after the fall armyworm attack. Since maize is a staple fodder in India, the dependency over maize by poultry farmers is more.
Due to the shortage in production, the price of maize increased and this further lead to an increase in the production cost of chicken and eggs.
In order to prevent a further attack, the farmers were forced to install safety kits, traps, and other biological and botanical methods of pest control. This further increased the cost of maize production.
In the end, India was forced to import maize in 2019 due to the damage caused in 2018. Apart from maize, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare confirmed the presence of the fall armyworm in finger millet, sugarcane, and sorghum farms.
Awareness Programs And Environmental Measures
Many alien species were introduced to India through trade, and this adversely impacted our agricultural economy. While analysing the major pest attacks in the past decade, it is clear that alien species are a great threat to the Indian economy and biodiversity.
Apart from all this, it also alters the food web ratio. There are many nonnative species whose transmissions have still not been unveiled in India.
In most of the cases, the farmers are not able to identify the new pest and they follow traditional pest control methods in order to control it. This leads to significant economic losses in the agricultural field.
In such a case, awareness programs for the farmers is one solution to sort the issue out. The introduction of stringent trade legislation and mechanisms is the best solution to prevent the entry of alien species in our country.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Crop losses due to insect pests: global and Indian scenario. (2015). Indian journal of Entamology, p165-168.
- Haranabasappa, CM Kalleshwaraswamy, R Asokan, HM Mahadeva Swamy, MS Maruthi, HB Pavithra, Kavita Hegde Kavita, Shivaray Navi, ST Prabhu. (2018). An alien invasive pest on maize in India. Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems, p23-29.
- FB Mandal. (2011). The management of alien species in India. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation, p467-473.
- CM Ramesh Kannan. (2013). Playing with the forest: invasive alien plants, policy and protected areas in India. Current Science, p1159-1165.
- JA McNeely. (2001). The great reshuffling: human dimensions of invasive alien species. Switzerland: IUCN.
- AA Satti. (2011). Alien insect species affecting agriculture and natural resources in Sudan. Agriculture and biology journal of North America, p1,209-1,220.
- KC Sekar. (2012). Invasive Alien Plants of Indian Himalayan Region—Diversity and Implication. American Journal of Plant Sciences, p8.
- Brian R Copeland and Scott Taylor M. (2003). Trade, Growth, and Environment. Journal of Economic Literature, p854.
- Judith M Dean. (2002) does trade liberalization harm the environment? A new test. Canadian Journal of Economics, Vol. 35, No.4, p819-842.
- Nemat Shafik. (1994). Economic Development and Environmental Quality: An Econometric Analysis. Oxford Economic Papers 46, p757-773.
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REFERNCES:
- Why India is vulnerable to attacks by alien species. Down To Earth.
- India should have effective strategy to fight Alien species. Business Standard.
- Fall armyworm, destroyer of maize farms, causes concern in India. Mongabay.