ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-PANAMA: Agrochemicals a Necessary Evil

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Silvio Hernandez

PANAMA CITY, May 9 1998 (IPS) - After a three-year probe, Central American agricultural experts have recommended a more rational use of chemicals on farmlands to end the deterioration of human health and environmental standards in the region.

The research program involved the six countries of the region and supported by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – which contributed close to 20 percent of the 700,000 dollars invested in the project.

Jaime Espinosa of the Institute of Agricultural Investigation of Panama (IDIAP), explained to reporters that the study centered on the use of the pesticides Corecturano, Terburfox, and Endosulfano in the cultivation of such crops as corn, tomatoes, and m elons.

Such products showed very low residual levels of pesticides. “If pesticides are applied in recommended dosages, and at the proper moment, the quality of the product as regards residue is guaranteed,’ Espinosa said.

On the other hand, the study determined that, in regard to the relationship between the soil and plants, the pesticides penetrate the earth and persist in aquifers. In other cases pesticides have a negative effect on “beneficial” fauna such as certain

insects and microorganisms.

For this reason is necessary to use chemicals with great care, to minimize their dosage, and to optimize the moment of their application,’ Espinosa emphasized.

Nevertheless, the lengthy reasearch made it clear that, for now, agrochemicals are indispensable to improving the quality of crops and pasture, and will continue to be essential to food production for the next 30 or 40 years.

FAO recommendations emphasize joint management of the pesticides and the use of agrochemicals in small quantities with the aim of reducing to a minimum negative effects on the environment and human health.

Urging a reduction in the use of pesticides, which in some cases, such as that of the banana plantations, involves the annual dumping of up to 100 kg per hectare, Espinosa indicated that the incentive is not to prohibit the use of agrochemicals but to us e them rationally.

In Central America, where close to 50 percent of the banana farming in Latin America is concentrated, each one of the six countries presently imports up to 10,000 tons of pesticides a year. That volume per person makes Central America, which has nearly 3 3 million inhabitants, the world’s biggest user of agrochemicals per person.

Costa Rican researcher Luisa Castillo indicated to IPS that in her country an average of 16 to 18 kg of pesticides are used for every hectare, an estimate that exceeds by almost 100 percent the present world average of 10 kg per hectare.

Although there have been significant changes in the matter of training workers, the use of pesticides continues to be the origin of environmental problems in Costa Rica,’ said Castillo, director of Toxic Substance Studies at the Costa Rican national univ ersity.

In addition to past problems of contamination, inherent in traditional banana farming, the problem now extends to the cultivation of vegetables, rice, ornamental plants, and some export fruit, stressed Castillo.

She explained that those most exposed to the noxious substances are workers, populations in the zones close to cultivation areas, and the aquatic ecosystem.

She indicated that investigations made by the institute that she directs confirmed the death of fish and shrimp in rivers close to banana plantations directly following fumigations of the plantations combined with subsequent heavy rains.

At the same time, Salvador Montenegro, director of the Research Center in Aquatic Resources of the Autonomous University of Nicaragua, denounced the fact that in his country there has been a serious contamination of the soil and water by toxic products f or 50 years.

He cited the case of new mothers intoxicated by DDT who had in turn transmitted the pesticide to their lactating babies. These same babies, when they reached adulthood, transmitted the intoxicant to their offspring as well.

Through the investigations we have found that pesticidal residue passes through the placenta and contaminates the fetus before birth. While these old agrochemicals are not so toxic, they have an extraordinary residual life and are therefore quite danger ous,’ Montenegro indicated to IPS.

In addition, he explained that investigations carried out in his country have determined that DDT is carcinogenic, causes malformations in the fetus, and, moreover, is mutagenic, which is to say that it causes transformations in genetic content.’

He added that contamination by DDT is believed to be associated with cancer of the neck of the uterus,’ the second leading cause of death among women in Nicaragua.

Mario Bustamante, a researcher for the non-governmental Zamorano Institute of Honduras, specified that excessive use of agrochemicals is generally attributed to commercial chains.

He maintained there were producers “solely interested in the quality of goods as it appears in the marketplace and are indifferent to the product that ultimately arrives to the consumer..”

The relation between quality and the marketplace is what, according to the researcher, provokes the uncontrolled use of agrochemicals that are affecting fauna, water sources, and human beings.’

Bustamante directs a program that combines the use of predators of insects harmful to some fruits and vegetables with the use of agrochemicals that do not kill the predators.

The idea is to combine the use of beneficial insects with the application of chemicals that do not affect them but rather attack the pests and exterminate them completely,’ thereby reducing the amount of pesticides used throughout the cycles of productio n, the researcher pointed out.

In addition to the concrete results obtained during the three years of research, Espinosa considered as a great achievement the establishment of a team of researchers at the regional level who wish to continue working in the benefit of a sustainable agri culture in Central America.’ (FIN-IPS-tra-sh-ml-en-kk-98)