Editorial: Farmers poisoning foodstuffs they supply to markets!.

The toxicologists and other experts involved in the study of chemicals and toxic materials, were unanimous that: “Chemicals have become very common because of the overuse of most chemical products by farmers as well as companies hoping to boost their yields. Most of the applications of such chemicals are unregulated, with farmers and other users applying whatever quantity and quality without any regulation”.

As such, Prof Asongalem Emmanuel Acha, President of the Cameroon Society for Toxicological Sciences, CSTS, expressed regrets that over the years, several illnesses are emerging, “which people cannot explain, but which result from their daily activities, even when they do not know that their lifestyles let them to such ends”.

The toxicologists are not the first to raise the concerns, especially in Cameroon where those who sell the chemicals are not trained.

It is therefore common for farmers to use weed killers meant for rubber, palms and cocoa farms, for yam, cocoyams, cassava etc. 

The root crops eventually absorb the toxic and consumers of such foodstuff in due course become infected by various diseases. 

In a research report titled: "A Pilot Study in Cameroon to Understand Safe Uses of Pesticides in Agriculture, Risk Factors for Farmers’ Exposure and Management of Accidental Cases", the authors noted that: "In the 38 health centres visited, 56 cases of pesticide poisonings and intoxications were reported between 2011 and 2016. Paraquat, glyphosate, cypermethrin and metalaxyl-formulated pesticides were the most incriminated".

The report pointed out that: "Pesticide poisoning is gradually becoming a major public health concern in Cameroon. Unfortunately, this problem remains under-addressed, mainly because of the poor understanding of its implications. Beyond the formal approval procedure for uses, no post-registration surveillance mechanism or toxicovigilance system exists to monitor accidents and the intoxication that may occur".

That was some nine years ago and with the current government's promotion of import substitution policy with the agricultural sector, the number of patients due to toxic in-farm products would have been astronomical.

The problem is not only the ignorance of farmers to use the right application, or the inability of the government to control the use. Manufacturers in their psychosis for profits, even at the risk of human health, have also been indicted.

In the United States and Europe, a growing assault against some of the weed killers has led to court cases against manufacturers such as Bayer, BASF and Syngenta.

In Africa, only Malawi is known to have suspended the importation of glyphosate. But under pressure from the manufacturer, it later rescinded its decision.

The African Centre for Biosafety, ACB, is running a campaign to push governments in Africa to ban the product, which is also common in the Cameroon market. 

“It is imperative that African leaders heed the precautionary principle now and take urgent steps toward protecting their citizens and the environments of which they are custodians against any further damage,” ACB said. 

Manufacturers, however, insist that politics and emotions have been the common denominator, pushing the glyphosate ban, following a 2015 International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, study that classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans.

They insisted that numerous scientists have contested the study, including a joint Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Health Organisation review on the risks associated with glyphosate that concluded that the herbicide is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans, through diet.

Whether the dangers associated to weed killers of various types hawked in Cameroon are politically motivated or not, what is undisputed is that all herbicides are poisonous. They are manufactured and designed for specific farming and right application.

But is that the case in Cameroon, where all types of chemicals are sold in markets and hawked on the streets by untrained people?

Does the Cameroon government control the kind of chemicals imported and sold to farmers? Are those who use them trained on how to protect themselves while spraying some of the herbicides and what crops they should be used for?

As Prof Asongalem pointed out at the Buea seminar under the theme: “Chemicals and health: Challenges and Solutions” ...herbicides used in Cameroon "...are the origin of most of the health problems we face because they leave chemicals in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. This is because when the farmers are applying them in the farms, they hardly follow the instructions that are written on them. They want the grass to die as soon as possible, so they end up spraying overdose, which ends up in our water, food and drinks”.

The solution to save the population from this unintended poisoning of humans and the environment, is to carry out sensitisation in the media, train those who sell such chemicals and ban the importation of those that have been proscribed in civilised countries.