CHENNAI:Tamil Maanila Congress leader G K Vasan on Tuesday urged the State government to dispel the apprehensions of Kerala over the reported high pesticide content in vegetables cultivated in Tamil Nadu through talks.
In a statement here, Vasan said an analysis done by the Coimbatore Agricultural University after testing 117 samples of vegetables and fruits from eleven districts of Tamil Nadu had shown that 96 per cent of the vegetables and fruits from Tamil Nadu are without any pesticide contamination.
The tests were done on samples of banana, tomato, brinjal, chilly, cabbage, bitter gourd, grapes and mangoes from the districts of Kanyakumari, Salem, Nilgiris, Dharmapuri, Madurai, Dindigul, Theni and Tirunelveli.
The laboratory of Coimbatore Agriculture university had been recognised by the National Testing and Measurement Laboratories under the Union government, he pointed out.
“Fruits and vegetables from Tamil Nadu are being sent to Kerala and Gulf countries. However, for the last one week, Kerala is refusing to buy vegetables claiming that there is poisonous residue of pesticides on them.
Kerala officials had written a letter to Tamil Nadu Food Department officials saying that they would ban fruits and vegetables from some parts of Tamil Nadu and this had created fears among the producers in Tamil Nadu.
There are reports that Gulf countries too are planning to ban fruits and vegetables from Tamil Nadu,” he said.