PESTICIDES:

 PESTICIDES:

Pests harm crops and transmit diseases both to human and animals. Pesticides are the substances that can directly kill an unwanted organism or otherwise control by interfering with its reproduction process. The current ability to produce large amounts of food on relatively small amount of land had been made possible around the world by use of pesticides. At present more than ten thousand different types of synthetic organic pesticides have been formulated. They are broadly classified into several principal types according to their general chemical nature. The most important and widely used pesticides are insecticides (which kill insects), herbicides (which kill undesired plants) and fungicides (which control the growth of fungus on the plant).

The use of various pesticides also helped in the eradication of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, bubionic plague and sleeping sickness.

Wide spread use of pesticides for getting greater crop yields if not properly checked and controlled has associated risks of contaminating the soil, plants and the water. The drainage water from the agricultural land mostly contains pesticides. Therefore if the use of any type of pesticide is not properly controlled it enters through various roots i.e., agricultural food products and drinking water into the food chain and thus pose serious health problems to both human beings and animals.