Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

Ecological Basis for Low-Toxicity Integrated Pest Management 193

variable while farm gate prices vary considerably on both a daily and seasonal basis.
Compared with rice, the riskiness of vegetable production provides a stimulus for
farmers to rely on preventive pesticide applications. For some vegetable crops the
average frequency of application of chemical pesticides is 10–20 times per season
(see Table 9.2), with up to 80 applications per season for brinjal (eggplant) pro-
duction in parts of South Asia (e.g. in Bangladesh).
The application of cocktails of pesticides by vegetable farmers is also a com-
mon phenomenon, particularly in Cambodia and Indonesia. Farmers mix insecti-
cides with fungicides and herbicides in an effort to make them more effective.
These cocktails commonly include banned or restricted, and often highly toxic,
insecticides such as DDT, endosulfan, chlordane, sodium cyanide, methyl par-
athion, mevinphos, methamidophos or monocrotophos.
A recent survey among 332 vegetable producers in Cambodia indicated that
55 per cent of farmers interviewed were using WHO Class Ia pesticides. This fig-
ure increases by another 18 per cent when farmers who are using Class Ib pesti-
cides are included. Thus, an alarming 73 per cent of interviewed farmers were
frequently handling highly and extremely toxic pesticides under conditions that
are far from those that can possibly be considered safe (see Table 9.3). The health
hazards to farmers and their families are serious (Murphy et al, 1999; Sodavy et al,
2000).

Table 9.2 Average number of pesticide applications per season for selected vegetable

crops in Cambodia

Cucumber Yard long bean Mustard Cabbage Radish

Number of pesticide

applications per crop cycle

7.5 9.1 5.7 12.1 10.0

Source: Adapted from van Duuren, 2003

Table 9.3 Proportion of vegetable farmers (n = 360) using protective clothing during

pesticide applications

Clothing and protective gear Proportion of farmers using each element

during application (%)

Long sleeved shirts and long pants 82

Cotton mask to protect from inhalation 64

Traditional scarf wrapped around head 52

Boots 38

Gloves 8

Raincoat 3

Protective glasses 2

Ordinary clothing 8

Source: Adapted from van Duuren, 2003