Review on pesticides role in agriculture, applications, safety and precautions in Ethiopia
Abstract
S. Regassa*, T. Selvaraj and A. Abera
Pesticides are toxic by design;they are biocides, designed to kill, reduce or repel insects, weeds, rodents, fungi or other organisms that can threaten public health and the economy. Pesticides have numerous beneficial effects, these include crop protection, preservation of food and prevention of vector-borne diseases.One issue of particular importance is the use of pesticides on farms, which has a significant negative impact on farmers’ health. Pesticide exposure can have chronic and acute impacts on human health. Long-term, low-dose exposure to pesticides is increasingly linked to human health effects such as immune-suppression, hormone disruption, diminished intelligence, reproductive abnormalities and cancer. Several studies have attempted to value the effect of pesticide exposure on human health. A recent study estimated that the cost of the public health impact of pesticide use estimated to around US$ 1140 million per year. On the Other hand; Lack of awareness, illiteracy of the majority of the farmers, inadequate training, lack of appropriate and timely information about the proper use and management of pesticides, inappropriate use of personal protective equipment, Weak law enforcement,inadequate implementation of the issued regulations, weak monitoring or followup activities to control pesticide usage and disposal problems results to contamination of the different environmental compartments (water, air, soil, food and biota), which in turn leads to health problems for human and other non-target organisms in the environment. Therefore, in addition to awareness creation, applicable IPM and pesticides use strategy especially in developing countries including Ethiopia is mandatory to save life.