Antibiotic misuse in crops

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in an assessment found that antibiotics that are important for humans, are being rampantly used in crops. Farmers along the banks of the Yamuna in Delhi, Hisar in Haryana and Fazilka in Punjab were found to be using streptocycline -- a 90:10 combination of streptomycin and tetracycline -- routinely and indiscriminately in high doses in crops, including on those crops which they not approved for. Farmers are unaware about the recommended use and spray antibiotics frequently like pesticides as a regular practice.

In humans, streptomycin is used for previously-treated tuberculosis (TB) patients, who make up over 10 per cent of the total estimated TB incidence in India. It is also used in multidrug-resistant TB patients and in certain cases of TB meningitis (brain TB).Resistance to streptomycin is quite high and its large scale non-human use could add to the problem. The World Health Organization classifies it as a critically important antibiotic for humans. 

AMR − antibiotic resistance − is a growing threat to global public health, and India is expected to be heavily impacted by it. Antibiotics are becoming ineffective as bacteria-causing infections are getting resistant to the antibiotics that are being used to kill them. Bacterial infections, which are quite common in India, are becoming difficult to treat or completely untreatable, leading to a huge health and economic burden.