The high cost of pesticide poisoning in northern Ghana 

Many cotton farmers are caught in a poverty trap which has worsened significantly over the last 10 years. Household income has fallen not only because of the increasing cost of inputs but also because of large medical bills incurred for health problems caused by the pesticides used on the cotton crop. Symptoms are serious and often need hospital treatment. Anita Hodgson reports on interviews with thirty farmers in Northern Ghana. 

In many villages children spray pesticides. Photo: Anita Hodgson

Large quantities of pesticides are required for conventional cotton production, and many of them are highly toxic. In September 2003, thirty farmers were interviewed in the Tamale region of Northern Ghana about their pesticide practice and health impacts. All reported regular occurrences of poisoning symptoms including dizziness, extreme weakness, blurred vision, red eyes, runny noses and headaches after spraying insecticides on their cotton or cowpea fields. The symptoms were usually so severe that they were unable to work for several days after each pesticide application. 
    Soelihu Abdallah, a 25 year old cotton farmer from Sakoba village said: ‘My body gets very hot all over, my nose is blocked and my vision blurred. It’s terrible. Most people collapse here before going to hospital.’

High cost of medical bills
Most farmers interviewed reported going to a hospital or local clinic to be seen by a doctor and to get medicines. The cost of the medical bill is enormous in relation to the income of these farming households. Farmers estimated that they spend on average 400,000 cedis a year (about £27) on medical treatment, adding significantly to their debts.

Impact on income
Farmers in the survey were further disadvantaged because they had to have between three and seven days off work and stay in bed to recuperate after each cotton crop spray. The average wage is about 10,000 – 15,000 cedis per day (about 75p to £1) and in a season there would be six sprays, so there is a significant opportunity cost of approximately 20 working days lost each season.
    Mohammed Babwa is 40 years old but looks much older. He says that he has to take as much as a week off work after each spray on his cotton crop amounting to almost five weeks per season. ‘I feel like I’m losing – it feels like work standing still. I don’t make any way forward. I would like to see an improvement in the side effects of these pesticides.’
    Many of the farmers are constantly in debt and cannot find a way out. Selfa Haruna, head of the Cotton Association in the village of Langa is nearly 60 years old but has to continue farming and, like the other younger farmers, cannot escape the dangerous side effects of the pesticides nor the costs they incur. ‘Most of the time I am in debt but I don’t know what else to do.’

Whole communities affected
The majority of the active population in each village is affected by pesticide poisoning. For example in the village of Langa, out of an economically active population of 1000 people, farmers estimated that 600 are regularly affected. In Vogu village farmers believe half the working population suffers from pesticide poisoning.
    Livestock are also harmed by pesticides, in spite of efforts to control them and keep them away from the fields when spraying is taking place. Sule Yacubo from Vogu village said that at least 15 head of his livestock die per season costing 200,000 cedis (£14) to replace them.

Effect on children
Most of the cash the farmers earn from the sale of cotton and food is spent on agricultural inputs and medical bills so little remains for other necessities such as household goods and clothes. 
    Most importantly, education suffers. Following structural adjustment policies, Ghana charges for education and healthcare. Musa Salifu and Adisa Musa are two farmers in their sixties from Moglaa. ‘A farmer in Ghana is very poor. We want our grandchildren to do something better than farming – we want them to be educated so that they are not as poor as we are, but we cannot afford the school fees.’ Many children on the farms do not now go to school and the consequences of this are serious not only for the farming communities but also for the development of the region as a whole.
    The health effects of pesticides and the high medical bills also contribute to food insecurity in the region. Farmers are highly vulnerable to food shortages which occur regularly every year in the months of April and May. They need cash to be able to buy food in the market when stored food runs out or is affected by infestations or mould.
    Farmers believe that protective clothing would help, one farmer – Hassan Karim from the village of Zangbalung, who sometimes borrows a mask, said that it had significantly reduced the symptoms and that he spends much less than other farmers on medical bills. 

Region cannot develop
With these kinds of health and financial constraints, the community as a whole cannot develop: indeed it becomes further impoverished. In the long term, lack of education is one of the biggest factors affecting economic growth not only of the community but also of Ghana as a whole. Healthcare costs for alleviating the symptoms of toxic pesticides have repercussions that go well beyond the level of the individual to that of the region and country.
    And there is not just an economic price to pay. As a result of regular inhalation of toxins when spraying pesticides and continual bouts of illness, farmers become weak and dispirited. An air of fatigue hangs over them and the strength to fight ebbs away. Farmers are so deeply resigned that regular visits to the hospital and high medical bills are now just a part of daily life. They feel they have no other option.

Anita Hodgson is a filmmaker and director. She has just returned from a six week voluntary placement with the CAPSARD group in Ghana, Anita.hodgson@virgin.net

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 62, December 2003, page 3]