Currently, corn and rice are the key crops attached to the lives and livelihoods of residents in Bon Be village, Pú Nhung commune. Previously, when entering the production season, people often cleared weeds manually on the milpas. As this task required a lot of time and effort, in recent years, villagers have gradually replaced manual weeding with various types of weedkillers. With this method, it takes only a few hours to treat weeds on the milpas instead of spending many days clearing them like before. It is this convenience that makes weedkillers the choice for the majority of households.

Giàng A Súa, Chief of Bon Be village, stated: “Currently, about 90% of households in the village use weedkillers. Previously, weeding took many days, but now it only requires a single morning of spraying for the weeds to wither completely. The chemical helps save labor costs, especially under conditions of production workforce shortages.”

In Kể Cải village, Pú Nhung commune, along with the crop structure transition process in recent years, the villagers still maintain over 20 ha of corn alongside a number of other crops. To save time and effort, the situation of residents using weedkillers is becoming increasingly common.

According to Kể Cải Village Chief Sùng A Tùng, most residents currently choose weedkillers over manual weeding methods due to the lack of workers and high labor hiring costs.

“Most people now use herbicides. They spray from the land preparation phase until about a month after planting corn. The application period usually starts from March or April and lasts until this very moment,” shared Sùng A Tùng.

What is worrisome is that during application, many residents are subjective and have not fully implemented labor protection measures. Sùng A Tùng added that many people go to spray wearing only regular clothes, without wearing masks or gloves. When facing the wind, the chemical blows onto their bodies and faces, but they keep working, thinking it has no effect. Some feel dizzy or uncomfortable after spraying but just ignore it.

Although the local government and mass organizations have repeatedly propagated the risks of abusing weedkillers, the habit of chemical use continues due to the lack of effective alternative solutions suitable for production conditions.

The abuse of weedkillers not only poses risks to humans but also negatively impacts the ecological environment. Chemical active ingredients remaining in the soil can reduce fertility, destroy many types of beneficial microorganisms, and affect the soil’s natural regenerative capacity. A portion of the chemicals washes down with rainwater into groundwater veins or flows into ponds, lakes, and streams, polluting water sources for daily life and production.

In the long run, degraded cultivated land will lower crop yields, increase production costs, and directly affect residents’ incomes. Meanwhile, the risk of contracting diseases related to the skin, respiratory tract, chemical poisoning, or chronic illnesses also increases with regular exposure to weedkillers without appropriate protective measures.

Facing this situation, the Pú Nhung commune government has intensified dissemination, mobilizing residents to change their awareness and production habits to step-by-step limit the use of weedkillers.

Nguyễn Văn Bách, Chairman of the Pú Nhung commune People’s Committee, affirmed: “We regularly propagate at village meetings and agricultural production training classes so that residents clearly understand the harmful effects of abusing weedkillers or using them incorrectly. Concurrently, we mobilize people to switch to handheld lawnmowers or manual weeding measures combined with biological methods to protect human health and the production environment.”

Alongside raising awareness for residents, the locality coordinates with functional sectors to step up inspections of agricultural supply businesses in the area, promptly detecting and handling cases of trading plant protection chemicals of unknown origin or substandard quality.

The use of weedkillers can bring quick results and help reduce labor in the short term. However, if abused or used incorrectly, immediate benefits must be traded for long-term consequences regarding human health, the environment, and the sustainable development of agriculture. To limit this situation, synchronized involvement from the local government, specialized agencies, and the residents themselves is required. Immediate convenience cannot be the reason to trade off the living environment and public health. Changing cultivation habits today is exactly how we protect the future of each family and generations to come.