Abstract not found.
Tag: pesticides
Human health and occupational exposure to pesticides among smallholder farmers in cotton zones of Côte d’Ivoire
While precautionary efforts are being made to minimize human health problems associated with agricultural pesticides, the continued occurrence of occupational poisoning from these chemicals raises major concerns among stakeholders. Information gap on human health problems associated with pesticides poses major obstacles to making informed policy decisions, particularly in developing countries where most of the poisonings occurs. In this study, we identified acute human health symptoms associated with pesticide use in cotton zone of Côte d’Ivoire and, documented the response of rural households to the symptoms. The results show that cotton farmers in Cote d’Ivoire suffer from different occupational health hazards from exposure to agricultural pesticides. Key health symptoms reported by pesticide applicators are headache, rheum, cough, skin rash and sneezing. Pesticide applicators reported four times higher symptoms of ill health than other household members who do not normally handle pesticides. Although, households recognized pesticides as an important cause of ill health, some of the symptoms have been accepted as norm by individuals who apply pesticides. Official data on pesticide poisoning in the country is most likely to be seriously under-estimated as applicators visited formal health centers for medical assistance in only 2% of poisoning cases reported. There is a high likelihood that households in the study area under-estimated pesticide-related health costs in making farm production decision-making. Approaches to use economic instruments for reliable monitoring and reporting procedures to formulate appropriate policies and regulations to minimize exposure to pesticides are recommended. Health planners and policy makers should aim at reducing the risks posed by pesticide to farm households by, improving awareness of farmers; promote complementary approach (e.g. Integrated Pest Management) and, use of economic instruments and improved surveillance to bridge the gap in the documentation of pesticide poisoning cases among farmers.
Agrifood supply chain, private-sector standards, and farmers’ health: evidence from Kenya
This article evaluates the impact of adoption of European Union (EU) private-sector standards on farmers health in rural Kenya. The study utilizes cross-sectional farm household-level data collected in 2006 from a randomly selected sample of 439 small-scale export farmers.We estimate the casual impact by utilizing a two-stage Poisson regression model, two-stage standard treatment effect model, as well as by regression based on propensity score, to assess the robustness of the results.Using these techniques, we demonstrate that the pesticide-ascribed incidence of acute illness symptoms and the associated cost of illness significantly decrease with the adoption of standards. Ceteris paribus, farmers who adopt standards experience 70% lesser incidence of acute illness and spent about 5060% less on restoring their health than nonadopters. Although standards can potentially prevent resource-poor smallholders from maintaining their position in lucrative export markets, they can also result in positive changes in the health of those farmers who do adopt them, as shown by these results. This implies that, if adopted on a large scale, standards may reduce production externalities, corroborating the view that they may serve as a catalyst to transform production systems in developing countries.
Qualitative cost-benefit analysis of using pesticidal plants in smallholder crop protection
Assessing the potential drivers of farmers using pesticidal plants for crop protection is essential for wider adoption. However, few studies have focused on collaborative assessments of the underlying trade-offs when using pesticidal plant extracts for pest control. Smallholder farmers in northern Tanzania involved in farmer driven research assessing pesticidal plants evaluated the costs, benefits, trade-offs and areas for future investment. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic information from 77 farmers and their views on pest problems and crop protection in common bean production. This was followed by small focus group discussions (n = 9) using a participatory framework to elucidate the costs and benefits of adopting pesticidal plant technology. A multiple correspondence analysis showed that pesticidal plant use was associated with men greater than 50 years old, and synthetic pesticide use was associated with younger aged farmers and women. Farmers who used synthetics generally did not report the presence of common pest species found in common bean production, whereas farmers who used pesticidal plants were associated with more frequent reports of pest species. This participatory cost–benefit analysis highlighted that tools and processing challenges were the main costs to using pesticidal plants. The main benefit reported when using pesticidal plants was a general improvement to family health. Farmers expressed overall a positive outcome when using pesticidal plants for crop protection and recommended that future investments focus on improving access to tools and education regarding plant processing and extraction to improve uptake of the technology by smallholder farmers. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Mushroom cultivation for soil amendment and bioremediation
Intensive crop production, use of pesticides, and unsustainable farming practices are known to cause land degradation and soil contamination. Both have led to a decline in biodiversity and changes in the functional groups of soil microorganisms. Although physicochemical methods have been used to apply soil amendments to agricultural land, mushroom cultivation in agricultural land for soil improvement have been poorly studied. In-field mushroom cultivation is considered a good strategy for improving soil quality by reducing the input of chemical fertilizers. In this paper, we list the edible mushroom species suitable for growing in fields and summarize the important role that mushroom field cultivation can play in soil erosion control, nutrient cycling, and the bioremediation of contaminants. Decomposition, symbiosis, assimilation, degradation, bioweathering, oxidation, biosorption, and bioconversion are all critical components of mushroom field cultivation. Research has shown that field mushroom cultivation contributes to nutritional bioavailability while also promoting the degradation of pollutants and formation of soil aggregates. Through soil amendment practices, a portion of agricultural waste can be converted into high-quality food and nutraceutical sources, and the remaining organic matter improves soil quality via fungal mycelial networks and the re-use of spent mushroom substrates. Only a small number of mushroom species have been used in the application of soil amendments in field conditions. This review shows the need for further research into specific mushroom species for achieving different soil amendment goals in order to balance agricultural development with sustainable land management.
A global-scale expert assessment of drivers and risks associated with pollinator decline
Pollinator decline has attracted global attention and substantial efforts are underway to respond through national pollinator strategies and action plans. These policy responses require clarity on what is driving pollinator decline and what risks it generates for society in different parts of the world. Using a formal expert elicitation process, we evaluated the relative regional and global importance of eight drivers of pollinator decline and ten consequent risks to human well-being. Our results indicate that global policy responses should focus on reducing pressure from changes in land cover and configuration, land management and pesticides, as these were considered very important drivers in most regions. We quantify how the importance of drivers and risks from pollinator decline, differ among regions. For example, losing access to managed pollinators was considered a serious risk only for people in North America, whereas yield instability in pollinator-dependent crops was classed as a serious or high risk in four regions but only a moderate risk in Europe and North America. Overall, perceived risks were substantially higher in the Global South. Despite extensive research on pollinator decline, our analysis reveals considerable scientific uncertainty about what this means for human society. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.