Campaign launched to raise awareness on proper use of pesticides

A campaign has been launched to help reduce risk of pesticides to farmers, consumers and the environment in Nakuru county.

The ‘Ukulima True’ initiative seeks to help reduce the risks to farmers, consumers and the environment from chemical pesticides.

The initiative was launched by the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International- CABI's CBCC (Centre For Behaviour Change and Communication) and Nakuru County Department of Agriculture.  

Geoffrey Rugaita, Social Behaviour Change Communications Lead, based at CABI’s regional centre for Africa in Nairobi, said the need to produce safe, quality and profitable crops more sustainably has never been greater.

“In the face of the challenges posed by climate change and pandemics such as Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Rugaita said the campaign will also specifically raise awareness to promote safer-to-use and sustainable biological pesticides (biopesticides).

This is in addition to monitoring and scouting to identify and manage crop-devastating pests and diseases early as part of an Integrated Pest Management plan.

The campaign will draw upon the aims of the County Social and Behaviour Change Strategy on Pesticide Risk Reduction and, in partnership, will raise the profile of safer pesticide use by disseminating key messages through interpersonal communication, print, radio and video media. 

"Ukulima True is encouraging everyone involved in the food value chain to support farmers to use pesticides more safely. In addition to ensuring that their sprayer is calibrated to dispense the correct amount of product and wearing personal protective clothing,” he said.

Hannah Oduor, from the Department of Agriculture, Nakuru, said around 70 per cent of land in the county is ripe for agricultural production.

In 2016, for example, the county generated over Sh2.91 billion from 180,388 tons of maize. However, production is constrained by bottlenecks along the value chains including pests and diseases.

Oduor said recognising the risks of pesticides in managing crop pests and diseases requires collaboration and action at many different levels.

“Ukulima True will take a holistic approach to reducing the risks of pesticides—to both humans and the environment— by raising awareness and giving training to farmers themselves as well as extension workers, market traders and agro-input suppliers,” she said.

She added that the smallholder farming community and other stakeholders were key in the formation of the County Social and Behaviour Change Strategy on Pesticide Risk Reduction, and will be equally important in the implementation of that as well as the Ukulima True campaign.

Research published in the journal CABI Agriculture and Bioscience showed a willingness of smallholder papaya farmers in Kenya to reduce their chemical pesticide use to fight the papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus).

The study, led by Kate Constantine, Project Scientist at CABI, found that in a desperate attempt to control invasive alien pests’, farmers often resort to the use of broad-spectrum insecticides.

This is despite biological control being a more sustainable method of pest management that is extremely suitable in the smallholder production context found in Sub-Saharan Africa.