Title: Enhancing economic development in southern province of Zambia through improved environmental risk

management of toxic pesticides

Executive summary

The purpose of this policy brief is to assess risk posed by the growing use of herbicides by the local farmers in Zambia.
Despite the benefit, use of Paraquat can bring about to the local farmers, many environmental risk associated with
the use of the pesticide. However, the use of probabilistic risk assessment such as the use of PEC and TER values can
provide vital information to the farmers in relation to the use of the herbicide. The government plays a major role
in ensuring that there is improved environmental risk management of toxic pesticides. However, it has been found
that environmental management usually comes second to government policy makers.

The media and the civil societies can have serious influence on various policy makers through their work. It is from
this vein, that they have been identified as a key stakeholder to help in improving environmental risk management
in Southern province of Zambia.

To achieve the proposed management plan of managing toxic pesticides, the following recommendations are made,

The media and the civil societies must be actively involved in lobbying the government to;

 Increase funding to government Agencies task to register chemicals so that they can carry out their duties
diligently,
 Revamp the program of field agriculture officer to provide sensitisation to local farmers on the PEC and TER
values so that they make informed decision
 Put to task the regulatory agencies tasked to carry out risk assessment to do their work diligently

Introduction

The use of herbicides for weed control in agriculture is increasingly being encouraged as a means to enhance
sustainable food production and poverty alleviation in many developing countries (1, 2). In Zambia, just like in many
other developing countries, herbicides prove to be cheap and efficient to weed management as compared to hand
weeding which is labour intensive. It is also believed that the use of herbicides reduces land tillage which help to
reduce soil erosion, nutrient run off and water loss (1)

However, despite the numerous benefits, the use of herbicides can cause serious environmental contamination that
may compromise the quality and productivity of the soil, surface and ground water if not properly managed (3). In
Zambia, it is quite obvious that the use of herbicides is likely to increase beyond levels the country is now and this
presents a challenge in ensuring safe use of pesticides by the local farmers.

The most commonly used herbicide in Zambia is Paraquat. Which is a non-selective contact and fast-acting herbicide
that are absorbed by the leaves (4). Its mode of action is by rupturing plants cell membrane and disrupting
photosynthesis there by allowing water to escape and causing the leaves to dry(3, 5). Due to its high toxicity,
Paraquat has been used as a suicide poison which has claimed a lot of lives especially in developing countries (6, 7)

Studies done in other countries indicates serious environmental impacts of the use of Paraquat, such as presence of
Paraquat in the urine of pregnant mothers as a result of consuming food or drinking water with residues of the
herbicides(8), affecting the reproduction of animals(9),

Like small-scale farmers in many other developing countries who lack adequate information and protective
equipment for using pesticides (10-12), most local users in Zambia are likely to be affected by the herbicide due to
poor management. .

The introduction of the Farmers Input Support Program (FISP) by the government has also increased the availability
of herbicides to the provincial farmers. However, despite the FISP program no measures have been set up to equip
the increased number of local farmers having access to pesticides. Porous international boarders coupled with the
low staffing levels in the Agency tasked to monitor pesticide have also contributed to the influx of unregistered
chemicals into the country including Paraquat.

Risk Assessment

The first line of defense in ensuring that highly toxic chemicals are not registered in the country is through an
Environmental Risk assessment (ERA) for the chemical coming into the country or those within the country before
registration or reregistration. The risk of the pesticide in soil or water is computed using a risk quotient (RQ) also
called the Toxicity Exposure Ratio (TER) of Predicted Environment Exposure (PEC) / predicted environmental
concentration (PEC).

PEC is the concentration which the ecosystem is exposed to or the concentration one expects to find in the
environment while PNEC is the concentration in the environment below which an unacceptable effect will be unlikely
occurrence or concentration that causes no adverse effect on the Environment. An ingredient will be deemed to be
environmentally compatible if the PNEC, is higher than PEC.

A number of risk assessment in other countries have been carried out using PEC and TER tools to determine the
residues of different chemicals in the environment (13, 14). The TER found from the calculation will be compared
with already tabulated figures and will provide the estimate of the potential risk of the pesticide in question. If this
ratio equals or exceeds 1, an ecological risk is suspected, and extra considerations are needed to refine the PNEC
and the PEC (15).

The PEC and TER values must be used by regulatory authorities when making decisions as they provide valuable
information on which pesticides and at what dosages and applications will pose the lowest risk potential in their
particular scenario and this can assist farmers in terms of pesticide usage in a user- friendly and cost-effective
manner and reduce their exposure to environmental risks.

Management Plan

Management of environmental risk from pesticide exposure, usually lacks support from the central government. The
central government has to be on board and support the program of Environmental risk assessment through funding
of such projects. There is also need of disseminating information to local farmers of the PEC and TER values to guide
the local farmers on the dosage they need to apply in their fields. The government needs to revisit the issue of
deploying agricultural officers in the field so as to provide technical advice to the local farmers. There is also need
for Zambia Environmental Management Agency the organization mandated to prevent pollution increases their
boarder operation to curb the importation of illegal chemicals

Recommendations

The media and the civil societies must be actively involved in lobbying the government to;

 Increase funding to government Agencies task to register chemicals so that they can carry out their duties
diligently,
 Revamp the program of field agriculture officer
 Provide sensitisation to local farmers on the PEC and TER values so that they make informed decision
 Put to task the regulatory agencies tasked to carry out risk assessment to do their work diligently

References

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