The Pesticides Law and the Attitudes of Pesticides Dealers in the Northern Region of Ghana: Implications for Environmental Security and Human Health

Abstract

The efforts of Ghana at enhancing its food security through increased and sustained Agriculture production has resulted in the increasing use of pesticides since the 1960s. Knowing very well of the environmental and human health impacts of pesticides, the government of Ghana through the EPA enacted the pesticides law ie Part II of the EPA Act (1994, Act 490) to regulate the handling and the use of pesticides in Ghana so as to minimize it`s negative impacts on the environment and human health. Within the framework of the pesticides law, the EPA in collaboration with strategic stakeholders in the pesticides industry has over the years organized series of training for pesticides dealers throughout the country to equip them with the technical knowledge on the proper handling of pesticides. The purpose of this paper was therefore, to interact with 106 purposively selected trained pesticides dealers in 16 districts of the northern region to ascertain how they are handling pesticides giving due cognizance to their environmental and human health impacts. It revealed that majority of the dealers (81%) had complied with the minimum distance requirement of 10m to 15m to environmentally sensitive areas such as water bodies, play grounds and food vending points. However, with regards to the possibility of run off from the sites contaminating surface water, 63% of the dealers did not comply as their shops were located upstream of surface water bodies without any provisions for spill containment.  The paper concludes that Pesticides dealers in the northern region do not handle pesticides according industry best practice and this has the potential to endanger environmental security and human health. The regulatory authorities therefore, have to be empowered to enforce the law on pesticides to the letter.

Keywords: Pesticides Law, Pesticides Dealers, Attitudes, Human Health and Environmental Security