High farmer illiteracy levels on pesticides usage risking lives-Malawi’s Pesticides Control Board
KASUNGU-(MaraviPost)-The Pesticides Control Board (PCB) of Malawi has expressed concern over what it describes as worrying low levels of knowledge among farmers on the usage and handling of pesticides, saying the situation is endangering the lives of many people and the environment.
The Board’s Principal Pesticide Inspector, Lesten Banda, also disclosed that unscrupulous companies and traders are taking advantage of the farmers’ illiteracy to flood the market with expired pesticides.
“Most farmers cannot read hence fail to understand and follow instructions written on the labels of the pesticide packages. As a result they are not following the recommended practices when applying pesticides in their farms or gardens”, lamented Banda.
He also added that the expired pesticides on sell include even those with red labels and considered most dangerous since they belong to group 1A and 1B of pesticides as classified by the World Health Organisation.
“This is a huge problem. As a country, we need to do something about it. Otherwise, illegal traders will continue taking advantage of our farmers by supplying them with expired pesticides, thereby putting so many lives in danger,” said Banda.
Banda spoke during a workshop for community radio broadcasters held in Kasungu under the Pesticides Risk Reduction Project which is being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) with funding from the Global Environmental Facility.
The workshop aimed at empowering the community radio broadcasters with information on careful use and handling of pesticides so that the broadcasters can bring greater awareness to the public on the correct measures to be followed when handling and applying pesticides.
According to Banda, by working with partners like FAO, PCB is already doing alot.
So far it has given out licenses to 1000 agro-dealers to sell pesticides across the country and conducts routine inspections on the market, confiscating expired pesticides and taking the culprits to law enforcing agencies.
Last year alone the board confiscated one tone of expired pesticides.
Banda also said the board is encouraging farmers to use other means of controlling pests and diseases in the face of apparent illiteracy and mischiefs in the use of conventional pesticides.
“There are natural pesticides, botanicals and biological that farmers can use. Nimu is one such botanical which is readily available and most farmers find it to be user friendly. They just need to spray it across their maize or vegetable gardens,” he said.
Community Based Facilitator for Msambamfumu Farmer Field School in Lisasazi Extension Planning Area in Kasungu, Maxwell Phiri, concurred with Banda on the use of botanicals, saying conventional pesticides are expensive and hazardous, and that they observed in their field that fall armyworm had become resistant to them.
“We are using Nimu to kill the fall army-worm after noticing that the fall army-worm was not responding to pesticides such as cypermethrin . We also soak residues of farm tobacco or leaves of tephrosia in water and later spray that water on our crops. We have managed to protect our crops from pest damage,” said Phiri.
