With the recent crash in global oil price, which has resulted to economic meltdown, most countries especially African countries that were depending on crude oil export are returning back to agricultural based economy and with the encouragements and supports from various governments, a lot of people are moving into this sector and this has subsequently and rapidly raise the application of pesticide to control the incidences of pests and disease outbreaks.
Though
application of the pesticide controls the pest problems to some extent in the
long term it brings lots of problems like pest resistance, minor pest outbreak
and soil, water contamination. Increasing the use of pesticide in the field
crop is not the ultimate solution, as it comes with its own negative
effects hence the need to create farmers awareness about specific
pesticide use, their safe handling and disposal procedure, direction of use etc
Most
of the farmers take pesticide as medicine that is used to cure crops from
diseases and pests. But actually it is the toxic materials that either kill or
deteriorate the growth of the pests increasing the yield of crops.
Some
of the pesticides have comparatively high residual effect which consequently
creates health hazards due to the accumulation of the pesticide residue in
different tropic levels of the eco-system. They persist for a long time in the
environment and cause environment problems.
Most
farmers lack the knowledge about the proper use of the
pesticide and at the same time would not like to employ a professional
pest controller rather they would prefer ‘ do it yourself’ system. This is not good. In
addition to this,, some of the pesticide resellers or shopkeepers and
distributors do not have enough knowledge on safe use of pesticides
and storage management, they also lack knowledge on specific pesticide that are
made for specific pest and disease, effective direction of usage ,proper
handling and storage of pesticide ,proper transportation and sound disposal
methods and cannot offer good advice on them to the farmers since most of them
are bought over the canter.
IMPLICATIONS
OF PESTICIDE MISMANAGEMENT
A research
has shown that “Fetuses, infants, growing children, pregnant and nursing mothers,
and women of childbearing age are most at risk from adverse health outcomes
from exposure to pesticides. Children are more at risk than adults
because children eat more relative to their body weight than adults eat.” Our
farmers and consumers need to know good agriculture practices (GAP) and the
government should focus to strengthen its extension services to the community
level.There have been a lot of cases of people being hospitalised after
consuming agricultural products.
SOLUTIONS
Use
of the indigenous knowledge and practices like using ash, neem
powder, etc as practice in some countries like Nepal must be promoted
with possible scientific manipulation to strengthen the efficacy of indigenous
practices. Use of bio-pesticide and other environmental friendly means are
alternatives. For example, washing vegetables with water for one minute at room
temperature results in approximately 40 to 90% reduction of the levels of the
pesticides originally detected on the produce.
Similarly, washing of the
vegetables and fruits three times reduces the residue by 60-70% and dipping of
agricultural produce in vinegar or salt for 15 minutes before cooking followed
by thorough washing can reduce the residue by 70-80%. These types of practices
must be communicated to the entire consumers via the social media. Also per
boiling of agricultural products like rice and beans etc and
thorough washing is also advisable Farmers should engage the service of a professional pest controller rather than do it yourself style.
During fumigation, direct liquid spray of chemicals on agricultural products like rice, beans maize etc should be avoided
Killing and consuming of wild animals(bush meat as known in some countries) with chemically induced bait should be seriously discouraged
From Chidi Odileke
GM Somplus Environmental and Facilities Maintenance Services
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