PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION AND POISONING AMONG SMALL HOLDER VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GROWERS IN GHANA – A REVIEW

Pesticide is used at all levels of agriculture, from backyard gardens through smallholder to large commercial farms. The varied nature of users and practices has resulted in mishandling and wrongful application of pesticides culminating in poisoning, environmental contamination and high residue in food. In most developing countries, including Ghana, smallholder farmers form high proportion of agricultural production force and therefore consumes considerable amount of pesticides used by these countries. This review therefore looks at pesticide application practices and associated contamination among smallholder vegetable and fruit growers in Ghana. Collated studies show that pesticide poisoning is very high and farmers are well informed of common symptoms of pesticide poisoning. Most of poisoning cases go unreported in health facilities and thus Ghana poison control centre has scanty data on pesticide poisoning levels in Ghana. Projections show substantial health and economic burden. Pesticide application practices such as short spraying to harvest interval, use of pesticide cocktail, lack of understanding of contact and systemic insecticides are recipe for high residue in vegetables and fruit products. It is recommended that well trained community spraying gang be formed in farming communities as commercial applicators to offer pesticide application services to smallholder farmers.