AGRO-CHEMICAL DEALERS TRAINED ON RIGHT APPLICATION (BACK PAGE)

THREE thousand and eighty agro-chemical input dealers and pesticide inspectors have been trained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Plant Protection and Regulatory Services (PPRS) to supervise pesticide application by farmers.
This has become necessary, following findings that the bad usage and disposal of chemical receptacles and containers have resulted in pesticide poisoning that claims the lives of farmers.
In some cases, the studies found that some farmers used the containers of pesticides to serve food to farm hands, and fetch water while cultivating their fields.
Mr Peter Maxwell Biney, Deputy Director of PPRS of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), told the Daily Graphic that the inspectors were going round advising farmers to destroy the containers by piercing holes in them to prevent their re-use in serving food and water on the farms.
He said his outfit and EPA were also promoting the use of safer alternative chemicals whose active ingredients had been reduced in order not to pose unnecessary health hazards to farmers.
Mr Biney, who admitted that the use of herbicides had been on the increase because they were more economical than using farm hands to clear fields, however, appealed to farmers using them to wear protective clothing.
He appealed to farmers not to hesitate to report suspected food, as well as pesticide-related poisoning cases to the Ministry of Health and MoFA for appropriate measures to be taken to prevent deaths.
He said the Ministry of Health had established a National Poison Control Centre at the Ridge Hospital in Accra to treat chemical poisoning whether intentionally or unintentionally consumed.
Mr Biney said pesticide-related poisoning cases had been underreported in the country and asked trained staff such as agricultural extension officers and health workers at the district level to provide feedback on all cases of chemical poisoning for entry into an online database.
He said that would enable MoFA to have information on the extent of the side effects of the increased misapplication of pesticides and how the bad practices in their use had resulted in some chronic health problems for farmers.