Colombian government intends to restart the spraying of coca crops with glyphosate formulations. As we know, there are plenty of negative effects that have been discovered on the ecosystems and life forms. So my question is this: what type of alternatives methods are there to effectively control the expansion of illegal crops?. To limit the answers, I am asking in regards to Biotechnology techniques and processes, not about the social programs that could be implemented.
The main problem is if the drug may still be harvestable after spraying, which means the people buying it will get lots of glyphosate. However the chemical in glyphosate does not target animal cells, so they will not actually suffer any harm. If the land has lots of rain, and drains quickly in to the sea, plants with their roots in the river may die, causing erosion. However it will be diluted, so it depends on the rate you use. Lots of herbicides exist, some just target broadleaf plants so will not kill bamboo, grass, etc. Try and spray when there are 3-4 days of no rain afterwards.
In other words, there are not "plenty of negative effects" of glyphosate. There are some, mostly related to applications near water. In comparison to alternative herbicides, relatively less environmentally damaging (as far as we know).
An alternative technology is a machete.
Beautiful question and great answers
I wish you success in the service of humanity and science
There are plenty of negative effects generated by glyphosate exposure, I've hundreds of research papers and I have read a lot about this topic in fact my bachelor thesis was centered on this environmental issue. Please avoid responding to my question if you're not going to give a factual answer. The question is about biotechnology not if Glyphosate has negative effects or not.
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