Agricultural experts in the country have been advocating for farmers to use agro inputs namely pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer among others in a bid to improve soil fertility and manage pests infesting their crops.

This is in a bid to achieve maximum yield. However some of these agrochemicals farmers are using in their farms are hazardous to human health and to the environment.

As such the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries effective in the month of April banned the use of nine agricultural agro chemical inputs since they pose human health and environmental hazards. 

This was revealed during the second annual Crop Life Symposium held in Kampala recently.

The experts believe some of the challenges which must be checked include Food Safety & Health Hazards because the excessive or improper use of agrochemicals leads to elevated chemical residues in food products like vegetables and milk.

Insights by Crop life experts

The Chairperson of Crop life Uganda Ms Agnes Mbabazi giving overview of the symposium notes that the organisation works closely with Uganda’s Ministry of agriculture to build comprehensive and sustainable capacities of agro input dealers, farmers and all those dealing in agrochemical industry to adopt good practices of crop protection.

This is to enable agricultural development and environmental health across the country.

To her much as Crop Life encourages farmers to use agro inputs to improve their yield, it is important for farmers to observe best practice use of these chemicals.

This is by ensuring they purchase agro inputs from genuine sources, read usage labels to avoid challenges such as crop damage, environmental and soil degradation.

She called on agro input importers to team up with Crop Life and the Ministry of Agriculture in order to avoid importation of agro chemicals which may end up causing challenge to the farmers and the environment.

Banned and Restricted Chemicals

The Commissioner Crop Inspection and Certification Ministry of Agriculture Dr Paul Mwambu, explained that Crop Life raised concern for the ministry to review 18 agro chemicals about the risks of their ingredients which the ministry experts did using scientific laboratory tests.

This regulatory review was triggered by emerging international scientific evidence and trade concerns relating to potential risks posed by certain active ingredients to human health, environmental safety, food systems and compliance with international residue standards on agricultural commodities

Therefore following technical review by the Agricultural Chemicals Control Technical Committee and final consideration by the Agricultural Chemicals Review Committee, the government reached a decision of phasing out 9 active ingredients.

They are Alpha-cypermethrin and Chlorothalonil which are pollutant of water and may end up destroying aquatic life and they toxic to beneficial insects such as bees.

Others are Atrazine, Butachlor and Carbofuran which are toxic to underground water and the environment.

They former causes reduced male fertility, coma and circulatory collapse as well as gastric bleeding while the later irritates the skin and eyes and causes toxicity to fauna and flora.

Dichlorvos is acutely toxic to environment while Dimethoate causes reproductive disorder and is toxic to pollinators

Meanwhile Diuron and Propanil cause Kidney failure, spleen and liver damage.

The nine active ingredients have which the committee placed under restricted use for specific crops include Ametryn which is restricted for sugarcane and pineapple weeding while, Carbendazim is restricted for use on cashew nuts only.

Chlorpyrifos is restricted only for use on ants in anthills and Fipronil is restricted in controlling termites in building sites.

Imidacloprid is restricted to seed companies for seed treatment and Indoxacarb is restricted for use on tomatoes to control tuta absoluta and diamond back moth insects.

There is no alternative at the moment for Mancozeb and yet it is critical for fugal management of several fungal diseases in fruits, vegetables and crops such as potatoes and tomatoes among others. The ministry is retaining it for the next five years as alternatives are being sought.

Profenofos has been restricted for the control of fall armyworm and Thiamethoxam is restricted for use on coffee to control black coffee twig borer and in Maize to control fall army worm.

Dr Mwambu notes that the banned agro chemicals have other alternatives and that he decisions mde are part of government’s obligation to ensure that only safe, effective and internationally acceptable agricultural chemical products remain in circulation and use by farmers.

Protecting Farmers and Uganda’s food systems

The Ministry according to Dr Mwambu recognises the critical role agricultural chemicals play in crop protection, productivity enhancement, pest and disease management and export competitiveness

However this must be balanced with the paramount need to protect farmer health and occupaional safety, consumers food safety, environmental integrity and biodivesity

Others are to ensure Uganda’s international market access and sanitary measure compliance obligations as well as responsible industry conduct and product stewardship.

The Ministry is therefore strengthening surveillance, compliance inspections, traceability controls, market intelligence and post-registration stewardship obligations across the agricultural chemicals value chain.

Dr Mwambu reiterated that regukatory compliance is a shared responsibility among government, manufacturerers, formulators, distributors, agro input dealers, farmers and insustry Associations

He called upon all private sector actors, including industry associations to continue engaging constructively with the Designated National Authority on agricultural chemicals, in the spirit of transparency, compliance, and partnership.

The deadline given to farmers is 180-day farm-use cessation and farmers are required to discontinue field application of phased-out products and transition to approved safer alternatives.

Restricted molecules shall remain under controlled use conditions, including crop-specific approvals, revised label claims, pre-harvest interval enforcement and residue stewardship monitoring.