Kenyan farmers on the treadmill - liberalisation threatens food security and sustainable farming

 This report on the pesticide situation in Othaya, Kenya is based on interviews between August and October 1998 with farmers, pesticide traders and others1 by local farmer and community organiser, Stephen Wachira Waikwa, of the Itemeini Organic Farming Self Help Group.

Background 
Othaya Division is in Nyeri District in the Central Province of Kenya, approximately 160 Km north of Nairobi. It sits between the Nyandarua (Aberdares) mountains in the West and Mount Kenya in the East, enjoying a cool climate and an ample annual rainfall of 1,800mm. The region has high agricultural potential and farming is the main activity. Most farmers are low income small holders, with farm sizes averaging 1ha (2.47 acres). About 60% of the farmers are women. Coffee and tea, grown on the slopes, are the main cash crops, with horticulture, staple foods and many indigenous crops making the balance. Dairy and poultry are key activities while goats, sheep, rabbits and pigs are kept on a small scale. In the neighbouring Muranga District, farmers grow French beans.
    Pesticides usage is high, and raises concern about the effect on health, the environment, and the social and economic well-being of the community. The capacity for survival among resource-poor small scale farmers in Othaya is being undermined by dependence on external synthetic inputs, which all farming households must now purchase. Input costs are exorbitant and dependence brings stress: they are not available when required, they affect farmers' health, pollute the environment and undermine agricultural stability and sustainability.

Suppliers
Othaya has 12 retail shops dealing primarily in agrochemicals, fertilisers, seeds, animal feeds and veterinary drugs. Many hardware shops stock chemicals. The Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) is the main stockist. The Coffee Co-operative Society is the major supplier to coffee farmers, who buy on credit. Products on sale include banned and hazardous pesticides like aldrin and lindane.
    Pesticides marketed by the major companies carry labels showing Pesticide Control and Products Board (PCPB) number, dates of manufacture and expiry. Others only indicate shelf life: where they may have sat for some time as leakages are noticeable. Pesticides from local companies do not carry registration numbers, warnings, symbols, or percentage of active ingredients. Examples include: Antkiller (20% lindane), no dates or PCPB number; Pestkill (aldrin) no percentage given; carbofuran expired 1996. Some stockists place animal drugs and mineral supplements on a shelf below pesticides where they are vulnerable to spills and leaks. Posters promoting pesticides proliferate inside shops and by roadsides.
    Liberalisation of markets has brought informal pesticide traders-middlemen who operate from the streets. They mainly supply retail shops, drawing supplies from wholesalers or those they refer to as 'drug barons', wealthy businessmen who buy in bulk from overseas or neighbouring countries. They supply pesticides withdrawn from use in Kenya: for example captafol was brought in from Tanzania. The 'drug barons' also buy empty containers and pack sub-standard chemicals. Examples have included ineffective lambda-cyhalothrin and Ridomil (metalaxyl) which tomato and potato farmers use against blight. According to one farmer, mancozeb is packed in Ridomil packs and sold to retailers and farmers.

Farming with pesticides
Farmers use three or more different types of pesticides against weeds, insect pests and fungal diseases. The greatest use is on coffee: the organophosphate insecticides fenthion, fenitrothion and malathion are just some in widespread use.
    Weeding in most holdings is done manually by digging or using a machete. However farmers with larger areas practise minimal tillage using herbicides, which is cheaper than labour for manual weeding. Resistance has been reported to paraquat and glyphosate, occasionally used to destroy couch grass or kikuyu grass.
    For soil application the most widely used pesticide is Furadan (carbofuran), which is applied both to the seed bed (nursery) and the entire plot. One young farmer with several nurseries reported the death of 27 birds of four different species, after they fed on Furadan granules.
    Where termites are a problem, farmers are still applying aldrin, a persistent organic pollutant (POP)  which has been widely banned-including in Kenya. Aldrin supplies are plentiful in Othaya where it was found in four out of five shops in June 1998 (see photo).
    Fungicides are also in wide use both in coffee and horticulture. Chlorothalonil is used on potatoes and tomatoes against blight.
    The biggest problem facing farmers is post-harvest storage of grains, maize and beans. Weevils, the major threat, are brought into the empty stores in newly-harvested cobs and pods, and if no protective measures are taken can bring heavy losses. The main pesticide used is the Zeneca product Actellic (pirimiphos-methyl) and malathion dust.
    Most farmers do not know that some pesticides are banned, severely restricted or withdrawn from use. Farmers are aware of residue level problems, but do not see it as their problem. As one coffee farmer commented: "Why should I care? Nobody drinks coffee here. The 'Wazungus' (Europeans) bring in the pesticides let them have it back for consumption." But the farmer regrets that: "The problem is pesticides are addictive-and the returns are not usually commensurate with inputs."

The highly persistent POP pesticide, aldrin, is widely banned, including by Kenya. Aldrex 48% EC was on sale in most shops in Othaya in June 1998. Tins are often rusty and labels carry no dates. Photo: SW  Waikwa

Pesticide application
Many farmers use pesticides inappropriately, and on crops for which they are not registered. Metalaxyl registered for blight in tomatoes and potatoes is widely used by coffee farmers for the control of coffee berry disease. Farmers claim that Sevin (carbaryl), normally used for the control of fleas in chicken, goats, dogs and sheep, is a more effective control against green scales and leaf miners in coffee than specified products (e.g. copper oxide in coffee)-and are cheaper.
    To keep costs down, farmers purchase from the 'drug barons'. But these supplies have usually been tampered with, and the efficacy is lost, leaving farmers to bear the brunt.
    Farmers seldom follow the recommended dosage, normally adding an extra measure for 'best results'. The farmers are not illiterate: most of those interviewed had received formal education, some to secondary level, but there is a lot of ignorance about pesticides.
    Mixing is carried out in the knapsack sprayer, a drum (which at other times will collect rainwater for domestic use), a wash basin and in one instance a cooking pot. The knapsack sprayers spill their contents-most of those observed had loose fitting caps-and others leaked from below. Most farmers will spray at any time of day, and regardless of wind direction.

Precautions
Apart from five farmers who wear gumboots, others spray barefoot or in worn out shoes. Farmers generally wear ordinary work clothes, without changing for other farm jobs like carrying fodder. None of those interviewed wore gloves, or had heard of respirators.
    All pesticides are stored in the house or in the farmhouse store-sometimes with foodstuffs. Others, especially the emulsifiable concentrates, are buried at marked spots in the garden.
    Disposal is a problem: papers, plastics and bottles are either thrown in the tube toilet, burned or buried in the field. The three-litre plastic containers are generally washed and used for paraffin.
    According to the Global Crop Protection Federation (GCPF) Safe Use Project in Nairobi, two trainers had visited the Regional headquarters of Nyeri District in early 1998 to liaise with the agricultural office, but as of September, no-one locally had heard of the project.

Health hazards
Direct and indirect exposure to pesticides continues to have negative effects on health. Farmers complain of headaches, dizziness, skin and eye irritations, mild colds, nausea, stomach upsets and sleeplessness. Pesticides identified as causing these symptoms included chlorothalonil, dithianon, pirimiphos methyl, aldrin and diazinon. Two former store keepers with Cooperative Society said they were never provided with protective clothing or respirators, even though their job involved weighing and measuring the pesticides to the customers (farmers), and they left because of the health problems. Farmers' families are affected: Catherine, a young woman with no direct pesticide contact says "every time my father's coffee is sprayed my eyes and all my body gets swollen and this lingers for about three days."
    People lack funds for medical check-ups. One teacher/farmer has noted a high incidence of school-age children who attend the local dispensary with colds, headaches skin and eye irritation especially in the months of April-September. This coincides with a time of high coffee spraying.
    Pesticides are occasionally used for suicide, and in 1996, one man mistakenly drank an acaricide thinking it was a brandy.

Effects on the environment
Water pollution perhaps represents the most worrying environmental impacts. Paul Thuku, an elderly farmer, lives downstream of sprayed areas and when fish in his pond began to die he had the water analysed. The results showed pesticide pollution. Stunned, he took a sample from his tube well which serves over 40 neighbouring households. Nine different pesticides were found.
    Other noticeable environmental changes include reductions in soil fertility leading to higher inputs of fertilisers. Farmers indicate this has resulted in increased wind erosion.

Anne Wamuyu, a farmer in Othaya, mixing pesticides in knapsack sprayer for application on vegetable crops. Photo: SW  Waikwa

Socio-economic implications
Agriculture is a high risk undertaking, particularly for resource-poor small scale farmers. Smallholders' nightmares begin each planting season when they must have cash available, or buy their inputs on credit. Sometimes suppliers may be out of stock, which leads to late planting and almost certainly a poor harvest. All inputs are highly priced in relation to the financial capacity of the farmer. At the same time, their food stores will be exhausted.
    The Coffee Co-operative Society supplies fertilisers and pesticides on credit, but all coffee must be sold to the Co-operative for processing and marketing by the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU) and the Coffee Board of Kenya respectively. Farmers have no say in pricing. Only aggregated payment rates are released, which creates room for 'eating' (the term used to imply corruption) farmers' money. The District level union acquires fertilizers and pesticides and sets a price before passing on to the respective co-operative society, which in turn attaches its price-usually higher, when passing on for sale to farmers. It is not unusual for prices to be double those in the retail outlets. The ability to hike prices is brought about by deregulation of price controls, justified in the name of 'liberalisation'.
    At the end of the season, most farmers find that they cannot break even, or owe money to the Co-operative: as one farmer said angrily "Marriage to the Co-operative is unfair: it always has a noose round the farmer's neck which keeps tightening."
    Farmers in the tea sector apply fertilisers twice a year, but rarely use pesticides. However they have a higher suicide rate than any other farmers in Othaya. Virtually all their land is tied up in tea, so they are dependent on the market for their food needs. They are paid (affectionately known as the 'Bonus') at the end of the year and when these funds are exhausted they are forced to buy on credit. Their nightmares come when the Bonus payment rates are low and they cannot pay their food debts. This happened in 1996, leading four farmers to commit suicide: two of these took pesticides.
    With these problems and low incomes, farmers cannot meet domestic food requirements. A small scale farmer is strangled by the agriculture she or he depends on for livelihood, to educate children, to clothe and provide other basic necessities like shelter, health, and to derive prestige from work and the satisfaction of looking forward to tomorrow.

Conclusion
The Green Revolution was intended to solve food problems, but it has brought negative long term effects. Agricultural extension pressures farmers to increase production using high yielding varieties which are dependent on external synthetic inputs. But information on safe-use practices of the pesticides is left to the salesman.
    Agriculture is a high risk venture and most farmers live in fear of failure and of the risk of losing their land and livelihoods. For resource-poor small holders to escape from the treadmill of pesticide dependency and exploitation by the dealers, there is need for gradual progression towards the substitution of toxic pesticides with alternatives such as biological controls, diversification, crop rotations, organic manures and integrated pest management (IPM) approaches. Diversified farming practices which will not reduce yields or profits, but which will replace monocultures which deplete the agro-ecosystem.
    This calls for concerted efforts, particularly by the farmers who are the key stake-holders, the mainstream extension and advisory services, research and consumers. But in a near-vacuum of information, extension and advice to farmers, and lack of effective consumer demand it will take a long time for farmers to respond.

1. Interviews took place between August and October 1998 with 66 representative farmers, five French bean farmers, sprayers, seven input suppliers, an informal trader, the Co-operative factories, agricultural extension, a former development officer, and a former spray formulator at the local French bean canning factory.

Stephen Wachira Waikwa is a  farmer and Community Groups Promoter, Itemeini OFSH Group, P.O Box 543, Othaya, Kenya.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 43, March 1999, pages 10-11]