Horticulture, pesticide use, environmental concerns and food security: A case study for Nguruman irrigation scheme.

Abstract

In the economy of the world and within each nation, horticulture is a basic industry. It is an important source of food supply to the world. However, losses due to pests on horticultural crops run into billions of dollars annually throughout the world. This loss is composed not only of reduced yields from crops ravaged by pests, but also the added expenditures to combat pests and the extra man-hours of labour required to control them .. Based on the available data, the environmental impacts on (wildlife, pollinators, natural enemies, fisheries, water and development of resistance) and social costs (human poisoning and illnesses) of pesticide use reach about $8 billion each year. The use of chemicals in pest control has a poor reputation due to the deleterious environmental effects caused by a number of pesticides. The main aim of this study was to find out if commercial horticultural crop farming had any effect on: • The environment, • Pesticides use, • Community health and • Food security. A sample of 81 farmers was selected for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected, which included both primary and secondary data. The data collected was then analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics. The study found that, there was increased use of pesticides after introduction of commercial horticultural crops farming in Ngurumani in the 1990s, with number of pesticide stockiest increasing from nil to 3 during this period. It was also noted that the level of education does not necessary contribute to how well the farmer uses the pesticide. The results also indicated that health problems increased with introduction of the commercial horticultural crops farming. Again, the area under food crops was affected by commercial horticulture farming from an average of 1.12 hectares, before introduction to 0.84 after introduction. The study concludes that commercial horticultural farming enhances the use of pesticides, interferes with the community health and affects food security. The study recommends that the government should enforce and review the environmental laws, which deals with environmental protection. It also recommends continuous education on environmental awareness at all levels. Farmers need to be encouraged to use farm management-based approaches to address the pests' problems rather than use of chemicals. Further research, should be done on the effects of pesticide use, on crop yields and human health.