Farmers learn how to use agricultural chemicals

There is a general complaint among farmers that a lot of agricultural chemicals on the market in Uganda are fake and that farmers are making losses by using them because often they do not get the expected results when they use them.

This was the main complaint among many of the 200 farmers who turned up for a one-day-farmers seminar in Kiwangala, Lwengo District on Tuesday.

The seminar was presided over by district principal agriculture officer, Peter Bamwesigye, who said it was very important for farmers to get regular training in handling and using agricultural chemicals. 

Training 
Bamwesigye emphasised the need for all farmers’ shop attendants and owners to seek technical training in handling agricultural training.

“The products that are sold in farmers’ shops are linked to human health, livestock health, crop health, and the natural environment. Therefore, just as we must have well qualified staff in human drug shops we must have well qualified people in vet and agricultural chemicals shops,” he said.

He thanked the organisers of the seminar and said the farmers must be taught how to apply the pesticides and herbicides as directed by the manufacturers of the products. “And the people who work in the shops must have the requisite qualifications to explain to the farmers how to safely apply the chemicals that they purchase.”

Taddy Nyanzi, the chairman of Masaka Agro-business Development Association asked the farmers, “Before you declare the seeds or the chemicals that you bought from the farmers’ shop to be counterfeit do you ever ask yourself if you actually followed the user’s instructions that came with the product that you bought?” 

Follow instructions 
He blamed the farmers for rushing to use agrochemicals and other products without paying any attention to the written users’ instructions that come with the products. 

“Too much application or over-dose of the chemicals can result in the death of the crop on which the chemical is used,” he said. 

“Farmers are expected to use agro-chemicals according to manufacturers’ instructions. It is therefore unfair to always blame the manufacturer of the product and claim that it is counterfeit if the farmers mindlessly applied the product without reading the user’s guide first.”

Misuse and wrong application of agricultural chemicals is a real problem in Uganda today and a country-wide public sensitisation on the usage of pesticides and herbicides and food safety is paramount. 

This is the responsibility that David Ntale the proprietor of VADIP Farmers Shop in Kiwangala and Solomon Seruwo of Bukoola Chemical Industries were out to fulfill their other mission,  which they both said, was to help farmers increase production on their farms without necessarily increasing acreage.

The project 
A study conducted in 2016 by Pesticide Use, Health and Environment (PHE Project) indicated that wrong application of agricultural chemicals by farmers posed a growing threat to public health as a total of eight different pesticides including Mancozeb, Malathion, Cypermethrin and Dichlorvos were found in all tomato samples randomly picked from open markets across the country.

Seruwo assured the farmers that any agro-chemicals sold in recognised and registered farmers’ shops are safe and effective as long as they are well applied according to the manufacturers’ guidelines. “When you go to the shop to buy a chemical don’t go by the advice of a mere neighbour but rather seek guidance from the shop attendant or follow the instructions that are normally on the leaflets or containers of the products.”

When to apply fertiliser 
He said some people don’t apply fertilisers in the right quantities and the results turn out to be frustrating.

“You will often hear such people complaining that the fertilisers are counterfeit and different from the type their neighbours used without bothering to establish the quantity that was applied. Even when planting seeds it is important to put the right number of seeds per hole. Find out if the seeds you are buying carry the seed breeder’s instruction. Too many of them in a whole may not yield satisfactory results.”

Seruwo further emphasised that it is not good to mix different pesticides in a spray pump without first seeking technical advice from a trained person like the area agricultural services extension officer or the attendant of a recognized agrochemicals shop. He also warned farmers never to put herbicides in the spray pump without mixing it with water.

Both Bamwesigye and Kisekka Sub-county Agriculture Officer Mubarak Sendagire shared their phone numbers with the farmers and informed them they were always welcome to contact them to seek guidance about any issues to do with agrichemical issues and other farming concerns. 

Advice 
Bagala Walusimbi, a prominent farmer and an author of a number of agricultural publications warned the farmers about safe handling of pesticides. For example it is risky to spray chemicals without wearing protective gear. Anybody who does that risks inhaling the pesticide and causing health hazards.   

According to an article in the online Medical News Today, dated August 19 2023, authored by Robby Berman and fact checked by Ferdinand Lali PhD, mindless agricultural spraying increases the lifelong risk of dementia more than air pollution from other sources. 

He refers to the findings of a new study from the University of Michigan and says tiny particles circulating in air pollution can easily enter the body and affect the brain via inflammation or direct crossing of the brain-blood barrier.

Herbicide usage is one of the most effective ways of controlling weeds for large scale farmers. Herbicides may be applied directly on the weeds or on the soil before the weeds sprout (pre-emergence application). 

They are considered expensive by smallholder farmers who must physically remove weeds using simple tools out of the fear that the crops grown are of lower value in terms of money than their expenses.

The seminar also turned out to be an opportunity for the farmers to see the latest fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides on the market.