Safeguarding Food Security Through Pesticide Regulatory Systems
Yes, they’re deemed dangerous but are still considered necessary in agriculture. Here’s a primer on what everyone ought to know about pesticides.
Pesticidcs are vital chemical inputs in the country where they’re comprehensively used both in agriculture and in public health programs. Their hostile effects on human health and environment are generally acknowledged.
The World Health Organization had estimated that about 500,000 cases of pesticide poisoning happen every year, resulting to almost 5,000 deaths annually. Some of the studies done in Sri Lanka explained that about 2.9 million cases of acute pesticide poisoning requiring admission to hospitals with about 220,00o deaths are likely to occur in developing countries like the Philippines.
The Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), on the other hand, along with the Department of Health (DOH) examine the causes of such cases through public hospitals and other reports. Since 1977, as mandated by the law, FPA has always taken charge of the regulation, storage, importation, exportation, manufacture, formulation, transport, sale, distribution, use and disposal of pesticides.
During the past eight years, a reported total of almost 4,000 cases have been announced, 2,500 of which (or 64%) were suicidal, 700 (or 17%) accidental, 558 (or 14%) were occupational, and 170 (or 4%) were not particularly specified. The male population has had higher number of reported incidents compared to the women.
The FPA, since 1979, has instituted the National Pesticide Safety/Program through agro-medical services with units whose primary objectives include training medical and paramedical personnel on the detection, medication and management of pesticide poisoning cases. With the help of DOH, the monitoring of pesticide poisoning cases has been done in rural health units, emergency, provincial and regional hospitals.
Over 2,000 doctors and paramedical personnel to date have attended seminars and have been provided with first aid kits that contain supplies for the initial management of pesticides. Training modules have also been handed out to agro-dealers, pesticide applicators and farm technicians.
Ephraim Gascon, FPA’s Field Operations Division Chief said, “We have been working hand-in-hand with the Department of Agriculture (DA). This may be a good indication of the continued profitability of the pesticide industry. Everyday, the industry continues to grow bigger even with these cases.”
In the Philippines alone, pesticides are most widely used for crop protection in rice, corn, vegetables and in institutional and export crops like pineapples, banana and other fruits.
Rice, which accounts for about 44% of the total crop protection market, is expected to remain the biggest market considering the need for more rigorous and sustainable rice farming. In recent years, direct-seeding technologies have been developed partly because of augmented farm labor costs, better irrigation, more intensive farming in irrigated areas and discovery and availability of new and selective herbicides. Many find it difficult to grow a good directseed rice crop without the use of a good herbicide.
Insecticides are also considered a big sub-market, and the types used nowadays are of lower danger categories and are used more carefully. Furthermore, there have been a lot of research efforts from crop protection companies to develop more compatible products.
Another substantial portion of the rice protection sub-market includes molluscicides. This is partly due to the pests of the Golden Apple snail and their tendency to reproduce and inflict large damage to young seedlings. Control methods consist of both cultural/mechanical methods and application of chemicals which can be either “blanket” or “spot” treatment in favor of the environment.
Plantation crops like bananas, which comprise the second major crop in the crop protection arena continues to be a dollar earner. For them, it’s roughly difficult to realize the quality and the yields required to sustain exports without crop protection. Because of the problem of resistance building up, alternate use of products in combination with pre-existing cultural and mechanical techniques is still necessary. However, farmers still use fungicides, herbicides and nematicides.
Fruits and vegetables remain a principal insecticides and fungicides market. These are crops where enduring development and application of related technologies are most essential. Corn, however, has grown from a dollar-earned to dollar-drainer, producing relatively small results.
The escalating demand for pesticides entails a budding concern over adverse effects not only to farmers and consumers but to the environment as well. These include concerns over reported misuses of pesticides. In a country such as ours, where most people suffer from nutritional deficiencies, many pesticides may have more severe effects.
And aware of the need to lessen this, FPA has created regulatory mandates and programs related to pesticides safety. These include institutionalized registration and licensing procedures of pesticides, registrations of bio-rationals with the help of the National Biosafety Committee of the Philippines (NBCP), strict labeling policies, and banning of severely and highly toxic pesticides.
To date, banned pesticides in the Philippines include 2, 4, 5-T; HCH/BHC; Aldrin; Heptachior; Azinphos Ethyl; Leptophos; Chlordane; Mercuric Fungicides; Chloro-dimeform; Parathion-Methyl; Copper Aceto-Arsenic (Paris Green); Parathion-Ethyl; DBCP; 1-Naphthylthiourea (ANTU); DDT; Nitrofen; Dieldrin; Organotin; EDB; Sodium Fluoroacetate; Elemental Phosphorus (White & Yellow); Sodium Fluoroacetate (i8oi); Endrin; Strychninc; EPN; Thalium Sulfate; Gophacide; and Toxaphene.
Additionally, more and more people are getting into the organic trend. Legal Assistant Grcgorio Arboleda explained, “Companies arc embarking into products of plant and/or animal origin that has undergone decomposition through biological, chemical or any other process that arc free from plant or animal pathogens, soil-like in texture, contains not less than 20% organic matter.”
All other materials that fall short of these requirements arc classified as soil conditioners or amendments whichever is applicable. Organic pesticides are either Pure Organic or Fortified.
Pure Organics are decaying plant or animal materials to which putrid activators may have been added to rush the course of decomposition and to which no chemical or inorganic fertilizer material has been added to the finished product to affect the nutrient content. Fortified/ Enriched Organic Fertilizers are organic fertilizer materials which had been applied with microbial inoculants, hormones and/or chemical additives to increase its nutrient content.
The various disastrous accidents that involve pesticides had served as wakeup calls for the global effort of making decisive political actions towards environmentally sound management of chemicals to ensure both sustainable human progress and survival. FPA strongly supports international initiatives towards regulating pesticides for health and environmental reasons.
