Substitute of pesticides with adverse effects
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Anwarul Iqbal
INDISCRIMINATE use of chemical pesticides in agriculture over past three decades is causing serious health and environmental problems in many developing countries. According to the surveys by the UN bodies, pesticide poisoning affects between one and five million agricultural workers each year. At least 20,000 workers die from exposure every year, a majority of them in the developing countries.
Chemically polluted runoff from fields has contaminated surface and ground waters, damaged fisheries, destroyed freshwater ecosystems and created growing "dead zones" in the oceans close to the estuaries of rivers that drain agricultural plains. Agricultural pollution has become a global problem with toxic compounds from pesticides accumulating in oceanic foods. Even the tissues of land-based mammals in "pristine" polar regions now contain significant toxic accumulations.
Despite advancement of science only scant data of chemical pesticides on health and environment could be collected. There is also a general lack of reliable statistics on pesticide use in developing countries due to high cost of collecting primary farm-level data. Committed to the promotion of sustainable agriculture in the partner countries, a multilateral capital donor agency has been working to reduce this knowledge gap. Its research programme examines the severity of toxic agricultural pollution to analyse the potential for adopting safer production methods.
The research on Toxic Pollution from Agriculture: Costs and Remedies began with a study of pesticide residues in agricultural crops imported into the US, primarily from the Latin American countries. The US Department of Agriculture's Pesticide Data Programme also does it. The results suggest that farmers and consumers in developing countries are exposed to higher pesticide toxicity compared to developed countries. The subsequent research explored the determinants of pesticide use in Brazil using municipal-level agricultural census data. Municipalities with higher shares of large-scale operations specialising in export crops were dominant pesticide users.
The next series of studies explored the economics of pesticide use at the farm-level with several surveys investigating pesticide overuse, pesticide misperceptions and health. The studies focused on two countries: Bangladesh and Vietnam. Pesticide overuse, misuse, lack of formal training and inadequate protection while handling pesticides were found to be widespread. The consequences of these factors on human and environmental health could be serious. In the absence of reliable secondary information on the health effects of pesticide use, several studies were conducted to assess the relative health impacts. Farmer perceptions of own-health were recorded, clinical exams, blood and skin tests were conducted.
As a substitute for pesticide use, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the methods of organic agriculture offer cleaner production methods without many of the negative externalities mentioned above. Initiatives were launched in Bangladesh and Cuba to learn from farmers' experience. However, externality problems make it difficult for farmers to adopt cleaner production alternatives, individually. The research in Vietnam has been meant for examining the role of the community and collective action in IPM adoption.
The environmental externality of pesticide use remains a subject of future research.
INDISCRIMINATE use of chemical pesticides in agriculture over past three decades is causing serious health and environmental problems in many developing countries. According to the surveys by the UN bodies, pesticide poisoning affects between one and five million agricultural workers each year. At least 20,000 workers die from exposure every year, a majority of them in the developing countries.
Chemically polluted runoff from fields has contaminated surface and ground waters, damaged fisheries, destroyed freshwater ecosystems and created growing "dead zones" in the oceans close to the estuaries of rivers that drain agricultural plains. Agricultural pollution has become a global problem with toxic compounds from pesticides accumulating in oceanic foods. Even the tissues of land-based mammals in "pristine" polar regions now contain significant toxic accumulations.
Despite advancement of science only scant data of chemical pesticides on health and environment could be collected. There is also a general lack of reliable statistics on pesticide use in developing countries due to high cost of collecting primary farm-level data. Committed to the promotion of sustainable agriculture in the partner countries, a multilateral capital donor agency has been working to reduce this knowledge gap. Its research programme examines the severity of toxic agricultural pollution to analyse the potential for adopting safer production methods.
The research on Toxic Pollution from Agriculture: Costs and Remedies began with a study of pesticide residues in agricultural crops imported into the US, primarily from the Latin American countries. The US Department of Agriculture's Pesticide Data Programme also does it. The results suggest that farmers and consumers in developing countries are exposed to higher pesticide toxicity compared to developed countries. The subsequent research explored the determinants of pesticide use in Brazil using municipal-level agricultural census data. Municipalities with higher shares of large-scale operations specialising in export crops were dominant pesticide users.
The next series of studies explored the economics of pesticide use at the farm-level with several surveys investigating pesticide overuse, pesticide misperceptions and health. The studies focused on two countries: Bangladesh and Vietnam. Pesticide overuse, misuse, lack of formal training and inadequate protection while handling pesticides were found to be widespread. The consequences of these factors on human and environmental health could be serious. In the absence of reliable secondary information on the health effects of pesticide use, several studies were conducted to assess the relative health impacts. Farmer perceptions of own-health were recorded, clinical exams, blood and skin tests were conducted.
As a substitute for pesticide use, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the methods of organic agriculture offer cleaner production methods without many of the negative externalities mentioned above. Initiatives were launched in Bangladesh and Cuba to learn from farmers' experience. However, externality problems make it difficult for farmers to adopt cleaner production alternatives, individually. The research in Vietnam has been meant for examining the role of the community and collective action in IPM adoption.
The environmental externality of pesticide use remains a subject of future research.