Why even though Nepal has significantly lower pesticide consumption but significantly higher health impact ?

Use of pesticide had started in 1950s in Nepal which was DDT and it had used to eradicate malaria disease. Later on,  government had imported it for agricultural use. later the DDT era many other insecticides and pesticides had imported and used in agriculture. Since late 1990s, there was significant use of pesticides and insecticides occured in Nepalese agriculture. Coming from the 1990s to till date, use of pesticide is in increasing trend. The reported data shows that, Nepal has 169 pesticide firms registered for productions and there are 3034 pesticides are available in market. 

Consumption rate of pesticide in Nepalese agriculture is 396 grams a.i per hectare. However, consumption is negligible in comparison to other countries. Analysing data shows that consumption rate in Nepal is directly proportional to how much Nepal import from foreign countries. Mostly pesticides in Nepal come from India; 90% of pesticides used in Nepal imported from India. 

There is no significant use of pesticide in Nepal if we compare to other countries. However, within the Nepal, consumption trend per hectare is increasing. With the increase in consumption, acute health hazard to people who expose to pesticide had reported. Though, per hectare consumption is still low in Nepal, increase in health hazard is because of over exposure and haphazard use. There are following reasons for health impact 

A. Not using personal protective equipment while applying pesticides in field

 Because of low awareness, people do not think they have to protect their body and entry points such as nose, mouth and eyes while applying chemicals in field. People recklessly apply pesticides in field without using protective equipment which increase the exposure risk. Respiratory problems, suffocation and other internal organ damage issues were reported for people who directly exposed to insecticides/pesticides. 

B. Applying banned pesticides and insecticides

There are 21 insecticides and pesticides banned in Nepal including DDT. However, because of porous border to India, many banned pesticides can be still found in market. Local growers who does not have idea about the banned pesticides can be easily fooled by retailers to sell these chemicals. In order to get quick response, local growers are using banned and dangerous chemicals in their field. If some grower is using normal pesticide will expose to lower amount of active ingredients, however, if grower is using banned pesticide which mean he/she have chance to expose with higher volume of dangerous pesticides. Applying these types of pesticides increase the health risk significantly.

C. Pesticide treat as medicine

Pesticides and insecticides are treated as medicine in Nepali community. They take pesticides and insecticides easily and treat very normally, however, pesticides/insecticides are poison. People do not follow the minimum application stand ardand after application procedure such as protecting body before application and body cleanliness after application. If we do not cover our exposed body, do not wash our hand and if we do not take shower after application, then there is higher chance of eating these chemicals. The ultimate result will be the more dangerous for health. 

D. Exposure time

It is not recommended to expose for long time to apply pesticides and insecticides. Exposing long time for pesticides are dangerous to health. We can see growers continuously spraying pesticides for long time even for a whole day; longer exposure definitely will increase chance of entering chemicals in our body and finally people will get severely sick. 

Therefore, if we create awareness to local growers about the concept of pesticides (it is not medicine) personal protection, it will be somehow helpful to maintain health. 

Author: Bhawana Bhattarai