Despite using them in low quantities, Nepal has been gradually facing the challenge to control the growing demands of highly toxic insecticides. In the last few years, the use of pesticides has increased significantly. Following the inception of the commercial vegetable farming, the demands for various kinds of pesticides grew higher. Although Nepal has already formulated a law to control the use of pesticides and an institution has already been set up to monitor and evaluate the pesticides, the country is not free from the hazardous impacts of overuse and misuse of pesticides. At a time when the countries around the world are setting the standard for the pesticides in agriculture products, the time has come for Nepal to take immediate initiative to strictly monitor the use of pesticides
By KESHAB POUDEL
A four-year-old child and a 45-year-old man died and three others were taken to hospital in serious condition in Gaur, 150 miles south of capital, following the consumption of bread made by flour bought from nearby market.
According to Dr. Sovendra Kumar Karna, a medical superintendent at Gaur Hospital, the death of patient was caused by the consumption of poison mixed food. Although more than a couple of weeks have already passed since this incident occurred, the government is yet to disclose what kind of poison was mixed in the food.
This is not the first reported case of such tragedy in the country. Many reports regarding such incidents go unnoticed while some get published in the daily newspapers.
Use of pesticides in controlling rodents and insects is rampant in the rural parts of the country. As highly toxic pesticides are easily available in the market, farmers usually use such pesticides to kill rodents and insects. Occasionally, toxic pesticides get mixed with the food grains without the knowledge of farmers and results in a tragic situation like in Gaur.
Department of Health Services’ Annual Report 2002 showed that 668 patients were admitted in different hospitals with toxic effects of pesticides and other hazardous unspecified chemicals. Among the hospitalized patients, 27 died in the year 2002.
Department’s 2001 annual report revealed more alarming trends. During the period, 53 were dead and 879 were hospitalized due to the toxic effects of other unspecified chemicals. Same year, 131 were hospitalized and 7 died due to the toxic effects of pesticides.
These apart, many other smaller incidents go unrecorded. Despite few cases of hazardous effects on human life, the overuse and misuse of pesticides is gradually hurting more and more human life.
Since Nepal is still a low use (of pesticides) country, most of the deadly accidents can be prevented simply by generating awareness among farmers. According to a nationwide study, 52 percent of farmers do not know about the toxic effect of hazardous pesticides on environment and human health.
According to a study conducted by Plant Protection Division, 59 percent of farmers use insecticides just after attacking of insects, 21 percent farmers before harvesting and 39 percent farmers spray for defensive matter. The farmers acquire knowledge regarding the toxicity of pesticides through various sources. According to the study, 34 percent acquire knowledge from retailers, 19 percent of farmers from neighbors and 13 percent from JTA – local agriculture expert.
“Although the volume of use of pesticides in the country continues to increase, it is not that alarming and worrying while advocating the ill-effect of insecticides on human health and environment simply because farmers in real practice are not pouring down huge quantities of highly toxic insecticides in most of the food and other crops,” said Dhruba N. Manandhar, senior Entomologist at Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC). “Major emphasis should be given to restrict the indiscriminate use of highly toxic broad spectrum insecticides in some crops like vegetables, cotton and fruits.”
According to the classification of the World Health Organization, most of the pesticides used by Nepalese farmers fall under organophosphate and IB category. That means farmers require prescriptions from trained agriculture manpower to use these hazardous pesticides.
Vulnerable Groups
All children are disproportionately exposed to pesticides compared with adults due to their greater intake of food, water, and air per unit of body weight, their greater activity levels, narrower dietary choices, crawling, and hand-to-mouth behavior.
Fetuses, infants, and children are particularly susceptible to pesticides compared with adults because their bodies cannot efficiently detoxify and eliminate chemicals, their organs are still growing and developing, and because they have a longer lifetime to develop health complications after an exposure. Pesticides can have numerous serious health effects, ranging from acute poisoning to cancers, neurological effects, and effects on reproduction and development.
Since Nepal is yet to undertake research to know the overall use of pesticides, no one can say what is the actual ground situation now. According to a test conducted by the Department of Agriculture in some products like tomato and potato, the level of use of pesticides is very negligible. The study done on the use of Dimethoate, Cypermethrin, Deltamethirn and Mancozeb in tomato showed that the observed residue level was lower than 0.1 ppm.
The study conducted on soil used for tomato farming disclosed that the existence of Cypermethrin toxic is below 0.008 ppm and 0.1 ppm. In potato farming, the studies have shown that the use of pesticides is lower than 0.1 ppm in accordance with test certificate and observed residue level. This recent study has shown that the level of use of pesticide is not harmful to human health.
International Conventions
Nepal has already signed and is a party to a number of international conventions. Nepal also strongly expressed its commitment to London Guidelines for the Exchange of Information on Chemicals in International Trade, Basel Convention 1989, On the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous wastes and Their Disposal (Ratified 1994), UN Convention 1992, Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent. Nepal is a signatory country of
Stockholm Convention.
Despite all kinds of these conventions Nepal is yet to implement them fully. In Southern plain areas, many pesticides continue to enter through different channels harming the human lives and environment. Farmers, too, prefer toxic pesticides to eliminate the insects.
“We are working to regularize all kinds of pesticides by issuing licenses and other registration paper. Thanks to our efforts, most of the pesticides available in Nepal are of very low toxic nature,” said Palikhe. “The problems with us are that one cannot prevent the illicit entry of cheap and hazardous pesticides.”
Nepalese government has already banned most of the pesticides banned by Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous
Chemicals and Pesticides.
One of the problems in implementing the convention is the lack of coordination among the government bodies. In most of the cases, Ministry of Population and Environment takes part in all the international conventions signed on behalf of the government. Interestingly, it is the Department of Agriculture and Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) responsible to execute it at local level.
One has to go to different ministries to understand the state of Nepal’s position regarding the international convention and categories of the pesticides and chemical hazards banned under such conventions. Since the registration of hazardous pesticides fall under the Pesticide Registration Office under the Ministry of Agriculture, it is the duty of MOPE to order the execution of international conventions. Thanks to lack of coordination, there are always confusions and difficulties in implementing such conventions and treaties.
Declining Trend
Thanks to the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), the volume of pesticide import is gradually on the decline. The quantity of various kinds of hazardous pesticides and their rampant use has gone down. According to a study by Pesticide Registration Office, the use of pesticides declined by about 40 percent with the increase of 15-20 percent of productivity.
There are now 333 pesticides of 79 technical names available in the market. The government has registered 219 for insecticides, 71 for fungicides, 28 for herbicides, 8 for rodenticides and 7 for others for import to Nepal.
In accordance to the act, the government has already banned 12 pesticides and the registration of Phosphamidon has been cancelled.
History of Pesticide Use in Nepal
Despite the long global history of use of pesticides in agriculture, Nepal started to use it very late in around 1950s. Nepalese farmers earlier were totally dependent upon the traditional organic techniques for the control of different pests.
Pesticides were first imported to Nepal to control the Malaria in 1950s. In November 1952, DDT was the first chemical pesticide introduced in Nepal by Ministry of Health. The pesticide was widely spread in Nepalese plain area to control the malaria. This paved the way for large scale migration to Terai.
Thanks to the wide use of DDT against Malaria, the country’s southern plain transformed into the most fertile areas In agriculture sector, the use of pesticide began in 1956 when Ministry of Agriculture imported DDT for pest control purposes. After the successful use of DDT to control pest, the farmers then started to import such pesticides from neighboring Indian market.
According to the latest estimates made by the Plant Protection Division of Department of Agriculture, pesticides equivalent to 55.8 MT of active ingredients are consumed annually in Nepal with the imports of pesticides equivalent to 55.8 MT.
With the support from Green Peace International, Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and Department of Agriculture, more than 5 Metric tons of outdated hazardous pesticides was repackaged in Khumaltar as per the international standard. Under a package of Asian Development Bank, 22.4 metric tons of hazardous pesticides lying in the Amlekhagunj and Banke were repackaged and labeled.
Despite the efforts of Green Peace International to dispose hazardous pesticides, now safely stored at NARC, the government is yet to give green signal to dispatch all hazardous wastes to the country of origin.
Rotterdam Convention
According to the office of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Rotterdam Convention on the PIC procedure for certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade has become international law and thus binding on its members from February 24, 2004.
FAO and UNEP’s study show that there are some 7,000 different chemicals available in the market now and around 1,500 new ones are introduced every year. Interestingly, many pesticides that have been banned or whose use has been severely restricted in industrialized countries are still marketed and used in developing countries.
The convention covers the following 22 hazardous pesticides 2,4,5-T,aldrin, captafol, chlordane, chlordimeform, chlorobenzilate, DDT, 1,2-dibromoethane (EDB), dieldrin, dinoseb, fluroacetamide, HCH, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, lindane, mercury, compounds, and pentachlorophenol, plus certain formulations of methamidophos, methyl-parathion, monocrotophos, parathion, and phosphamidon. Since September 1998 six additional pesticides (binapacryl, toxaphene, ethylene oxide, ethylene dichloride, monocrotophos and DNOC and one additional severely hazardous pesticide formulation) have been added. It also covers five industrial chemicals.
With the beginning of commercialization of agriculture, Nepalese farmers started to use various kinds of pesticides to increase productivity. Highly toxic and hazardous pesticides are used in the protection of plants from insects and fungi ignoring their adverse impact on the human health. Despite being signatory, parties to various international conventions including Rotterdam Convention/ PIC, the government is yet to control the sale of all the hazardous pesticides. “Many pesticides that have been banned or whose use has been severely restricted in industrialized countries are still marketed and used in developing countries,” said resident representative of FAO in Nepal.
Jointly supported by FAO and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Rotterdam Convention enables countries to decide which potentially hazardous chemicals they want to import and to exclude those that they cannot manage safely.
According to Pesticide Registration Office, 146154.48 kg of different pesticides were imported by Nepal in 2002. In 2001, Nepal had imported 196064.58 kg of various kinds of pesticides. Likewise, Nepal had imported 108427.79 kg, 51387 kg and 56172.56 kg in the year 2000, 1999 and 1998 respectively. It indicates that the volume of imports of pesticides has significantly increased. Pesticide Registration Office has issued permission to 319 commercial brands of 71 pesticides including 8 highly hazardous, 20 moderately hazardous, 10 slightly hazardous, 30 hazardous and 2 non-calculated ones. The government has already banned 12 pesticides and Phosphamidon has been deregulated in Nepal.
“Since Nepal has firmly expressed its commitment through being signatory, party or observer in all the international conventions on hazardous pesticides, the government is clearly committed to ban the use of hazardous pesticides,” said Bhakta Raj Palikhe, registrar of Pesticide Registration Office and Government Designated Expert in Chemical Management to ICRS for the Rotterdam Convention. “Most of the hazardous pesticides included in Rotterdam convention have already banned in Nepal and we have already initiated to deregister remaining two highly hazardous pesticides listed in the Rotterdam convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC).”
The residue levels of most of the samples were found to be within the safety limits prescribed by FAO/WHO. A study conducted by World Conservation Union Nepal (IUCN) in 1995 showed that there is 142 gram per hector residue – which is much lower than the FAO/WHO standard.
“Nepal has to, sooner or later, to ban all kinds of hazardous pesticides. Most of the farmers don’t know how to use the highly toxic pesticides safely and continue to damage the health and poison the environment,” said Bhusan Tuladhar, an environmentalist.
Despite certain legal restrictions, a large number of farmers have direct access to market and their desire for higher productivity and crop security increases pesticide use in Nepal. And this is likely to accelerate in the future. Nepal shares a long open border with India where agrochemical production is growing without quality control – cheap and environmentally damaging agrochemical find their way into Nepal.
“We recognize that, in meeting the increased demand for food production, pesticides will continue to be used. The Rotterdam Convention provides countries with major tool to reduce the risks associated with pesticide use,” said Jacques Diouf, the director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “The treaty promotes sustainable agriculture in safer environment, thereby contributing to an increase in agricultural production and supporting the battle against hunger, disease and poverty.”
Despite deregistration and banning of many pesticides like DDT, chlordane, aldrin and other highly hazardous pesticides are still available in the market. The most commonly used insecticides in Nepal include BHC-dust and Aldrin. These hazardous pesticides are mostly used by vegetable farmers. According to health experts, pesticide use just before the vegetable harvest can lead to excessive residue in food, affecting the health of the consumers.
The study conducted by Nepal Agriculture Research Council, an apex government’s agriculture research body, revealed that vegetable farmers wait less than the required time to harvest vegetables after using pesticides. “One of the tragic parts is that large number of farmers cannot follow the procedures written in labels on the pesticides but often depend upon verbal instructions of the retailers. Most farmers are unaware about the process of pesticides’ residue accumulation and its implication for future,” said Bhola Man Singh Basnyat, spokesperson of the Council.
Many farmers even use pesticides and poisons in fishing in most parts of Western Nepal. This has led to the extinction of some aquatic species.
Pesticides are used for “preventing, controlling, destroying, repelling or mitigating” pests. Pesticides have been used in Nepal in the areas like control of vector borne diseases in health, pests and disease control in crops in agriculture, protection of forest crops from diseases and domestic pests in forest, and pest control during carpet storage in manufacturing. Besides this, pesticides are also used for controlling household pests.
According to Pesticide Registration Office, a sole government body to regulate and monitor the pesticide, Nepal imports pesticides from different countries. It has 63 industries and 3032 registered pesticide retailers. More than 50 commonly named pesticides under 150 trade names are available in Nepal.
Despite being banned under the government order in 2001, DDT, BHC dust is the most frequently sold chemical pesticide followed by Parathion methyl (Metacid). There is a legal provision stating that it is mandatory for a person or an organization to acquire a certificate of registration before the import, export, sale or purchase of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides but they occur openly in many parts of the country.
Nepal has already banned 12 hazardous pesticides in April 2001 including Chlordane, DDT, Dieldrin, Endpin, Aldrin, Heptachlor, Murex, Toxaphene, BHC, Lindane, Phosphamidon, Organo Mercury fungicides, and the pesticides like DDT and BHC.
Greenpeace International has stated that there are 70 tons of obsolete pesticides that the companies have exported to and abandoned in Nepal over the past 20 years. A group of Greenpeace activists came to Nepal in October 2001 and managed abandoned pesticides at Nepal Agriculture Research Council’s store. The clean-up crew aimed to contain all the poisons in high density barrels and hundreds of small containers to prepare them for transport back to the original countries of production.
”We have already banned and deregulated most of the hazardous pesticides included in the Rotterdam Convention and we are preparing to ban other remaining hazardous pesticides,” said Bhakta Raj Palikhe, Registrar of Pesticide Registration Office.
Judith’s Contribution
An American called Judith Chase had introduced organic farming through Agriculture Appropriate Alternatives in Bhaktapur. It all began in leased land where Judith Chase’s Organic farming showed the effective way to reduce the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Chase was the first person in Kathmandu to visualize the alternative methods for agriculture development keeping in mind the safety and environment-friendly farming. Despite her two decade long efforts, the organic farming is yet to be commercialized in Nepal.
Till the farm was under the management of Chase, it stood as a model and was the only supplier of organic foods to expatriates here. Even after her departure, the farm in Dadhikot Bhaktapur is still supplying organic vegetables.
Along with AAA, there are many other privately owned organic farms. But among them, they only capture a small portion of market and are confined to catering to the expatriate population.
At a time when misuse and overuse of pesticides are already beginning to create troubles for Nepalese, it is right time to generate mass awareness and take initiatives to contain the use of pesticides.