Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Climate Action (SDG 13)
Hazardous acaricides use and disposal by farmers and agrochemical dealers
Douglas Sifuna 1 , Anthony M. Pembere 1 , Silas Lagat 1 , Godfrey Barasa 1 , Timothy Manda 1 , Emily Ngeno 2 , Patrick Ssebugere 3 , Christine Betty Nagawa 4 , Christine Kyarimpa 5 , Stefan Böhmdorfer 6 and Solomon Omwoma 1 * 1 Department of Physical Sciences, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Bondo (Main) Campus, Kenya 2 Department of Physical Sciences, Kaimosi Friends University, Kaimosi 3 Department of Chemistry, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda 4 Department of Forestry, Bio-Diversity and Tourism, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda 5 Department of Chemistry, Kyambogo University, Kyambogo, Uganda 6 Department of Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry of Renewable Resources, University of Natural Resources and Applied Sciences, Vienna, Austria Chemical usage in food production value chain has detrimental effects despite the gains. For instance, acaricides are used extensively to manage ticks and mice in livestock. The acaricides and their residues can have far reaching health effects to non-target organisms including humans, insects, plants and other animals. It is, therefore, important to minimize or avoid exposure of non-target organisms to acaricides. In this work, acaricide use and disposal by farmers and agrovets in Trans Nzoia County Kenya is evaluated. Trans Nzoia County is a leading livestock farming region. A purposive survey on agro-chemical shops, government agricultural farms, large scale farmers and small-scale farmers was done. It was found out that little care is taken against personal protection from the acaricides during spraying whereby only 33% ,0% ,42% and 51% of agro-chemical shop attendants wear gloves, safety glasses, mask and overalls respectively. Furthermore, only 8%, 48%, 2% and 28% of the farmers use gloves, overalls, safety glasses and masks respectively. After spraying, disposal of used acaricide containers, remnants of the acaricides and protection of soak pits used for disposal is hazardous and prone to pollute underground water, plants, soil and affect animal health. For instance, insects such as bees and house flies were detected consuming the acaricides residues in unprotected soak pits and obviously transferring the same to various food webs. Construction of animal drying section in spraying crushes was also found to have grass that the animals easily feed. It is recommended that extension field officers in Trans Nzoia County monitor and manage acaricide usage including carrying out farmer and agrochemical dealer’s sensitization on health effects of acaricides, safe disposal methods, and importance of using personal protective equipment during acaricide use. If possible, a policy requiring agrochemical dealers to sell the
acaricides accompanied with personal protective equipment is recommended. Keywords: Acaricides; acaricides disposal; agrochemical shops; livestock farming.
P18
© The Author(s), 2023
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