PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 1 : Sowing Poisons, Growing Hunger, Reaping Sorrow

Meriel Watts, PhD

1 Introduction in Europe demand organic produce, the Contents chemical companies have intensified ood security is the ultimate their sales pitch in the South, that part 1 Introduction 1 problem facing the world today of the world with the richest tradition FAn estimated 830 million people 2 The Industrial 3 of sustainable food production – until Agricultural System lack adequate access to food; and of the last 40 years brought these 21 The Green Revolution 3 these 31 per cent are in East and South- corporates striding across the southern 22 The Chemical Corporations 4 East Asia and 31 per cent in South Asia landscape They have come to control 23 Pesticides, cash and 6 In the year 2000, 27 per cent of pre- rural poverty the food production system for their school children in developing countries own profits, not to ensure the hungry 3 Poisoning the people 7 had stunted growth, with this figure ris- are fed 31 Exposure 8 ing to 50 per cent in East and Central – Occupational 8 Asia The cause: poor quantity and di- Even increasing the yields of crops – In the home 9 versity of foods leading to widespread will not by itself solve the problem of – Suicides 9 hunger What matters most is who pro- – Food risidues 9 deficiency of vitamins and minerals Yet duces the food, who has access to the – Drinking water 9 at the same time 14 per cent of peo- technology and knowledge to produce 32 Gender issues 10 ple in industrialised countries are – Biological sensitivity 10 obese Even in some Latin American it, and who has the purchasing power 33 Health effects 11 countries the obese out number the to buy it (Pretty & Hine 2001) And – Children 11 thin (Pretty & Hine 2001) who has access to the land to grow it, – Chronic effects 12 for rural poverty is highly correlated to The relationship between food secu- 4 Poisoning the Environment 14 access to land (ESCAP 2002) Whilst rity and food production is a complex India’s rural poor face mounting debts 5 Nature fights back: 15 one, but food security is mainly a po- resistance to pesticides with inadequate nutrition, the nation’s litical problem - one of control, profit, food stocks continue to accumulate 51 Insect pest resistance 15 inequality, over-consumption of the – leading to decreased There are about 60 million tons of food production rich, and the lack of will to ensure peo- grains in stock, far in excess of the 52 resistance 16 ple do not go to bed at night hungry buffer norm of about 158 million, but 53 resistance 17 This is widely recognised and well-can- there has been no significant reduction vassed territory But the myth, that 6 Feeding the world better 17 in the incidence of absolute poverty in without pesticides more pesticides means greater produc- rural areas The rising output has been tivity which means fewer hungry peo- 61 Some important features 18 accompanied by rising input costs and of sustainable agricultural ple, lives on and is still a powerful driver rising food prices, reducing the food systems of agricultural policy worldwide “If purchasing power of the poor 611 Size/land reform 18 farmers use more pesticides, our food 612 Conserving the soil and 19 problems will all be solved”, has been Women are disadvantaged in agricul- restoring its fertility the institutional mantra of the last 50 tural systems, producing up to 80 per 613 Biodiversity 19 years Now added to that is the new cent of food, but owning little land and 614 Traditional indigenous 20 with access to less than 10 per cent of knowledge, seed version of the old theme: if farmers use conservation, and modern biotechnology we can banish credit and extension advice (Pretty & participatory technology hunger in developing countries The Hine 2001) What land they do own or development corporate giants that control modern have access to is often marginal land re- 62 The Evidence 21 industrial have a vested fi- jected by the industrial agricultural com- 621 Summary of evidence 22 plex as worthless for production The for sustainable nancial interest in prolonging the per- agriculture by petuation of the myth that only using proportion of rural women to men is growing system more of their products will feed the growing: in 1993 it was reported that 7 Conclusion 23 world As more and more consumers 35-40 per cent of all households were headed by women, and this figure is 2 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Pesticide sprayers in oil palm plantation, Malaysia

Vegetable farmer, Sri Lanka

Pesticide sprayer in plantation in Kamukhaan, Mindanao, Philippines Vegetable farmer in Yunnan, China likely to have grown over the ensuing This analysis therefore sets out to lay quires ensuring that small farmers gain 10 years (Mumtaz 1993) These women to rest the myth that pesticides are control of their land and produce, that are the poorest of all rural dwellers needed to feed the world It addresses they are empowered to make their own Pretty & Hine (2001) put it very simply: the role of pesticides in an industrial decisions, not have them dictated by “Women and children need more food” complex which has eroded traditional international powerbrokers such as Food security requires an adequate and organic agricultural systems that agribusiness conglomerates and finan- supply and diversity of food through- once provided the food people need, cial institutions It involves a decentral- out the year, food that contains the causing a shift from the production of ised, democratic approach, putting necessary mix of protein, food to the production of crops for people not pesticides first So, in es- and fat together with essential vitamins cash It addresses the poisoning of peo- sence, a focus on production does not and minerals Just as nature is not sus- ple, the contamination of the environ- ignore the political issues: removing tained by a monocultural system, nei- ment, the advent of insect resistance, pesticides from the equation leads in- ther are humans sustained by a and the reduction in the biodiversity evitably to a change in the power rela- mono-food industrialised diet One of that sustains an agroecosystem It ex- tionships within the international the features of many sustainable agri- plores the greater productivity that can agricultural system, delivering it back cultural projects, which do not rely on be achieved by avoiding the use of into the hands of communities Pesti- pesticides, is the great increase in di- pesticides at the same time as enabling cides are not then primarily about pro- versity of food supply This can be farming communities to regain their duction, but are really about power and achieved simply by incorporating , dignity and independence greed Ensuring that all people receive crabs or shrimps into the production Working with nature, encouraging adequate food requires a focus on food system, and growing vegetables on rice biodiversity, and using traditional sovereignty rather than on increased bunds and in kitchen  It is not knowledge and local inputs: this is how production, where those who need achieved by using pesticides the world’s people can be fed This re- food have access to the land, resources, PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 3 knowledge, and skills to provide a nu- Then in the 1970s and 1980s more susceptible to certain patho- tritious and varied diet for themselves, were introduced to save on labour gens (eg blight in rice) and insects” their families and their communities (Kaosa-ard & Rerkasem 1999) Kaosa-ard & Rerkasem 1999, Ch1, p 70 Developing countries overall ac- 2 The Industrial counted for about half of all pesticides The Green Revolution’s high ‘yield- Agricultural System used in 1995, and that percentage has ing’ varieties also had a disastrously probably increased by now In 1998 eroding effect on agricultural ore than one-quarter of the Asia accounted for 16 per cent of glo- biodiversity UN’s ESCAP (2002) ex- Mworld’s land area is used for bal pesticide sales Over the years pected that by 2005 India would be agriculture Over the past 50 years the 1977-1997 there was a per annum in- producing 75 per cent of its rice from destructive agricultural practices that crease in pesticide use of 75 per cent, just 10 varieties, compared with the are part of the industrial agricultural in terms of $ value per ha of arable 30,000 varieties traditionally cultivated system have degraded almost two- thirds of this total area, through ero- land, averaging 994kg/ha In more The Green Revolution ‘high-yielding’ sion, salination and nutrient depletion recent years (1994-96) the amount of varieties needed water In Thailand, for Pesticides are the crutch of this system pesticide used has begun to drop, to example, this led to the development They enable monocultural enterprises an average of 587 kg/hectare, whilst of irrigation projects which required that are attractive to pests and that en- use of chemical fertilisers has escalated massive capital investment and the in- courage erosion through use of herbi- This is how the Asian Development volvement of the World Bank The cides to remove weeds which otherwise Bank described the advent of pesticide World Bank required Thailand to de- hold soil in place, provide habitat for problems in Asia: velop national economic development beneficial insects, and feed people Pes- plans The first of these, for 1961-66, ticides allow use of modern ‘high-yield- “The problem of pesticide use in headed Thailand down an agricultural ing’ disease-susceptible hybrid seeds foodgrain production is mostly as- path that required improving yield and that are bred only to increase yield in sociated with rice and is a conse- productivity to, on the one hand pro- a one-dimensional sense, eg to in- quence of the Green Revolution In vide foreign currency to finance the in- crease yield of grain at the expense of order to reduce losses from in- dustrialisation scheme, and on the other overall biomass per hectare or total pro- sect pests, the technology packages ductivity In their turn these varieties provide cheap food for the rapidly that delivered the first HYV (IR8) growing population Double and even require substantial inputs, leaving the seed to farmers almost always in- farmer often in a vulnerable financial treble rice cropping ensued in the cen- cluded insecticides, usually one of the position, facing debt from which she/ tral plain area as farmers faced low extremely potent organochlorines he may never recover if the crop fails prices and the need for massive appli- or the market price drops too low Pes- However the organochlorines cations of fertilisers and pesticides ticides allow use of chemical fertilisers killed not only the insect pests but Farmers caught between the input costs that produce soft disease-prone , also their natural predators Insect and the low output prices found that and contaminate waterways and ecologists tried to draw attention to the Green Revolution further aggravated groundwater The chemical fertilisers this from the early 1960s, but were rural impoverishment and “has had tre- that come with the pesticide package ignored for the most part Then the mendous negative impacts on rural allow the farmer to boost yield without pests began to develop resistance to natural resources, undermining the ba- using  But the resulting failure the pesticides, especially to some of sic livelihood of rural farmers” (ESCAP to return organic matter to the soil even- the organophosphates that were re- 2002, p174) Millions of small farmers tually leads to a break down in soil struc- placing organochlorines Attempts to were driven to indebtedness and forced ture and health, a build up of diseases and insects, and a loss of productivity combat these developments pro- off their farmland Take away the pesticides and the farmer ceeded by their increasing the dose In the Philippines rapid agricultural is forced to return to a system that en- or combining several chemicals into growth in the 1970s and early 1980s, riches the soil, seeds that are naturally even more lethal pesticide “cock- resulting from the introduction of the resistant, and a greater biodiversity that tails” These only worsened the situ- Green Revolution technologies of protects the crops and provides a greater ation because they served to kill ‘high–yielding’ varieties and chemicals, level of overall production even more of the pests’ natural was accompanied by decreased wages, predators and further increased the 21 The Green Revolution increased unemployment, and seasonal evolutionary pressure on pests to indebtedness A study by the Agency Chemical fertilisers, pesticides, irriga- develop even greater resistance to for Community Education and Services, tion, new high-yielding varieties of sta- the pesticides published in the mid 1980s as a book ple crops, new crops such as cotton, The Green Revolution technology called The Miracle That Never Was, oil crops, vegetables, fruits: these were itself has intensified the pest prob- showed that rice farmers were eco- the tools of the Green Revolution that lem and in many ways has stimulated nomically better off before they shifted took place in Asia from the late 1960’s the increased use of pesticides Large to the intensive of high- to 1980s and the year-round yielding varieties Their previously di- The first pesticides used were insecti- planting of single crops create ideal verse farming systems and sources of cides, applied to the so-called high conditions for massive pest out- food and income made them less vul- value crops, ie grown for cash: veg- breaks The high levels of nitrogen nerable to price manipulations and cli- etables, fruit, cotton, plantation crops in the applied fertilisers make plants matic effects (ESCAP 2002) 4 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

be both coercive and underhand They Box 1 are reported to spend an estimated US$1 billion annually on advertising Green Revolution decreases yields and marketing in Asia (EJF 2002) In many cases the Green Revolution did increase production of a single Global pesticide sales are expected commodity, although often at a terrible human cost But it didn’t always to have reached US $314 billion by increase production: ESCAP (2002) recounts how historical evidence indi- 2005The Asian pesticide market forms cates that yields were once comparable or even greater than those resulting a substantial part of this and it is grow- from the Green Revolution technologies In the eighteenth century British ing at an alarming rate By the year engineer Thomas Barnard surveyed 800 villages near Madras He found 2000, the Asia-Pacific market was 254 that the average yield of wetland rice was 36 tons per hectare, with 130 per cent of the global market In that villages reaching 82 tons per hectare, and others exceeding 10 tons per year alone, sales in the region rose by hectare – compared with present day average of 31 tons with extensive 105 per cent, with total sales reach- use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides The impressive production was ing US$76 billion based on agroecological practices, together with the 30,000 varieties of The biggest growth areas in pesticide rice “delicately fitted into their appropriate ecological niche” sales are in Asia and Latin America Bringing new products into the north- ern markets, which are generally static, It now seems that the claims made and are now declining This pattern is requires heavy investment in research, about the positive impacts of the Green emerging throughout Asia It appears and the costs of this are covered by the Revolution may in fact have been rather that the irrigation, compaction of soil expansion of sales of older products overstated It has been claimed that the through use of heavy machinery and into, particularly, the lucrative Asian Green Revolution is responsible for the the chemical inputs have had serious market The FAO and WHO have drop in the World’s hungry from 942 impacts on the soil health, reducing its warned that 30 per cent of pesticides million to 786 million, over the period ability to sustain healthy crops (Paul & marketed in developing countries do 1970-90 However this 16 per cent drop Steinbrecher 2003) not meet internationally accepted qual- in hunger disappears if China is taken ity standards and “frequently contain out of the equation In China crop yields 22 The Chemical Corporations hazardous substances and impurities rose by 41 per cent per year from 1978 that have been banned or severely re- to 1984, the period during which that The main reason pesticides are so stricted elsewhere (EJF 2002) Most of country introduced its third land revo- prevalent in the world today is that the top ten pesticide companies have lution, the ‘household responsibility sys- there is a huge multi billion dollar in- their homes in Europe and USA, coun- tem’ This system restored farmers’ dustry behind them, exerting undue tries which have removed many of powers to make decisions about land influence on international standard set- these hazardous pesticides from their use that they had been denied under ting bodies, national governments, and own agricultural systems because of collectivisation, and it corresponds with local communities The enormous in- human health and environmental ef- the increase in production The number fluence these chemical corporations fects Yet these companies are free to of hungry in China dropped from 406 wield, because of their economic push the same poisons onto develop- million to 189 million - but was this due power, is a major factor in the persist- ing countries This practice can only be to the Chinese revolution rather than the ence of pesticides in agriculture despite described as immoral and a gross vio- Green Revolution? (Rosset et al 2000) the mounting evidence of environmen- lation of human rights tal contamination, human poisonings, If these figures for China are set aside, Yet even these companies recognise and greater yields achieved when the the number of hungry people in the that they and their products are tainted world actually increased by 11 per cent chemicals are replaced by agroecological during the Green Revolution, from 536 practices Aware of their poor image, stemming from Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, to 597 million (Paul & Steinbrecher The pesticide industry is highly com- and the work of civil society groups like 2003) “In South Asia, there was 9% petitive, constantly jostling for control PAN, these companies are reinventing more food per person by 1990, but there of the market Over recent years a se- their public face Together with their were also 9 per cent more hungry peo- ries of mergers and buy-outs has re- sibling, the biotechnology industry, ple Nor was it increased population that sulted in 80 per cent of the global they market themselves as the “LIFE made for more hungry people The total pesticide trade being controlled by just SCIENCES”, in an effort to appear posi- food available per person actually in- 10 companies, the top six companies tive and to promote an image of supe- creased What made possible greater accounting for 70 per cent of the mar- rior scientific credibility They have hunger was the failure to address unequal ket (ETC Group 2003) Five of these are aggressively sought the moral high access to food and food-producing re- also in the top ten seed companies, and ground, branding their products as sources” (Rosset et al 2000) hence control huge portions of the ag- • feeding the world Finally, the Green Revolution yields ricultural sector worldwide • protecting the environment have not been sustainable The first Their raison d’être is to make money, • able to be used safely in developing signs of failure appeared in the Philip- not to feed the world They push pes- countries pines, in Luzon and Laguna, where ticides through aggressive multi-million • IPM-friendly (Dinham 1999) yields peaked in the 1980s, levelled off dollar advertising campaigns that can PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 5

Box 2 properties were discovered in 1939, that what kills insects also kills peo- From war chemicals and throughout the war the chemical ple Many organophosphates are still to agrochemicals was used to control the lice in Europe widely used in agriculture throughout and mosquitoes in the Pacific that Asia, exacting a terrible human toll The history of chemical inputs in plagued soldiers (Whorton 1974) After farming reveals a close relationship be- USA/Viet Nam War: this war is widely the war the huge production facilities known for the inhumane actions of the tween military technology and the found a ready market in agriculture and agrochemical industry United States in drenching the Viet- the era of poisoning began in earnest namese countryside in the defoliant World War 1: At the beginning of this - even though the first environmental Agent , a mixture of two agri- war the Allied blockade shut off the problems were recognised in 1944 cultural herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T Germans’ access to Chilean nitrate, (Wildavsky 1995), bioaccumulation What is not so well know is that these used for explosives So, using the pre- was noted in 1945, and human health herbicides were developed during viously known but not commercialised effects by 1950 (Laug et al 1950) World War II Shortly before the end Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitro- This war also gave a big push to the of the war in the Pacific an American gen from the air, the Germans devel- development of the organophosphate freighter was on its way to Manila with oped enormous production capacity insecticides Bayer, amongst others, car- a load of herbicides of the 2,4-D and and huge stockpiles of nitrates When ried out research into alternatives to the 2,4,5-T group The intention was to the market for explosives disappeared use of poison gases, and came up with starve the Japanese by destroying their after the war these were diverted into the phosphoric acid esters After the crops through aerial spraying of the nitrogenous fertilisers, and an agricul- war they turned their attention to agri- herbicides “The Boat was ordered tural input market was born culture, reasoning that what kills peo- back before it arrived Another group (Lutzenberger & Halloway 1998) ple should also kill insects (Lutzenberger of Americans had dropped the atom World War II: This war gave birth to & Halloway 1998) It is ironic that it has bomb” (Lutzenberger & Halloway the pesticide industry DDT’s insecticidal taken so long to convince governments 1998)

In support of these claims, they have marketing strategies actual hinder at- cludes using chemically intensive agri- ‘invented’ the concept of conservation tempts to expand sustainable agricul- culture, large scale plantations and ge- tillage, a benign sounding name for ture (EJF 2002) netic modification (Altieri 2004) Yet broadscale herbicide application, which Further, in an attempt to ‘green’ the the principles of ecological agriculture at the same time implies that traditional Green Revolution they have hijacked promote something very different: the tillage is anti-conservation Yet farm- the concept of ecological agriculture, utilisation of natural methods of soil ers have used equivalent soil conser- re-branding it as ‘ecoagriculture’ with fertilisation and pest control in place vation strategies for hundreds of years practices that are in direct contraven- of chemicals and genetic modification, without recourse to toxic herbicides tion of the principles that define eco- with a high degree of biological diver- They claim their products are IPM- logical agriculture and agroecology sity within the agroecological system friendly even when they destabilise the Biotech and pesticide companies, such It draws on the best practices of or- agroecological system: for example as Syngenta and Bayer CropScience, ganic, biodynamic, regenerative, low Rhone-Poulenc’s fipronil and Zeneca’s together with Croplife International, external input, traditional and lambda-cyhalothrin are reported to the global network representing the systems, and protects the have negative impacts on natural pest interests of the science industry, rights and livelihoods of small farmers controls and to have the potential to have become members of ‘Ecoagriculture and rural communities (Watts 1991, promote severe outbreaks of disease in Partners’, a consortium of organisations Clunies-Ross et al 1992) Agroecology Vietnam (EJF 2002) In fact it has been whose strategy to protect in- is described as “a truly pro-poor farm- suggested that the chemical companies’ ers science”, which encompasses land distribution, indigenous people’s and farmers’ rights, the impact of Table 1: Top 10 Pesticide Companies in 2002 globalisation on food security, and of Sales (US$ millions) Company Country biotechnology on traditional agricul- Pesticides Seeds ture, as well as measures to enhance 1 Syngenta Switzerland $5,260 $937 2 Bayer Germany $3,775 $250 functional biodiversity within the 3 Monsanto US $3,088 $1,600 agroecosystem (Altieri 2004) 4 BASF Germany $2,787 In one pernicious marketing cam- 5 Dow US $2,717 $200 paign in Malaysia, ICI Agrochemicals 6 Du Pont US $1,793 $2,000 7 Sumitomo Chemical Japan $802 (now Syngenta), took out huge print 8 Makhtesim-Agan Israel $776 advertisements in 1992 declaring 9 Arysra LifeScience Japan $662 “Paraquat and Nature working in per- 10 FMC US $615 fect harmony”, when in fact paraquat Source: ETC Group 2003 accumulates in soil and poses a risk to 6 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS non-target terrestrial and aquatic that it has driven farmers to grow vegetation, is highly embryotoxic cash crops rather than food in for amphibia, acutely toxic to order to pay the escalating costs birds, and poses a risk of suble- of inputs For example, in Ma- thal poisoning for wildlife (US laysia, export production of non- EPA 1997, Vismara et al 2000, food or luxury items – oil palm, Madeley 2002) In Guatemala rubber, cocoa, pineapple and images of a scantily clad blonde pepper – covers three-quarters of woman were used, again by ICI, the total cultivated land The to promote the herbicide import bill for agrochemicals Fusilade (fluazifop-p-butyl) now exceeds RM1billion Mean- (Dinham 1999) while 26 per cent of smallhold- As a result of such seductive ers live below the poverty level (ESCAP 2002) marketing campaigns, pesticides Pesticide company advertisements in Fang Watershed area, have become a status symbol in north of Chiangmai, Thailand In Sri Lanka, 40 per cent of the countries such as Cambodia This cultivated area is planted in plan- may be in part because the tation crops – tea, rubber and Khmer translation for the word – despite a national pesticide includes the word policy goal of being self-sufficient medicine It may also be in part in the basic foods: rice, milk, because of a perception that pes- sugar, fish and pulses Poverty re- ticides equate with modernity mains a serious problem for Sri (EJF 2002) Lanka, especially rural poverty These transnational corpora- and most particularly in female- tions also lobby international or- headed rural households Farm- ganisations, such as FAO and ers who practice the traditional Codex1, to weaken guidelines and Sri Lankan agroforestry system they influence national govern- (Kandyan Forest Gardens) enjoy ments to weaken regulations, if a relatively better standard of liv- possible replacing them with vol- ing because the highly diversified untary codes which leaves con- system of nearly thirty crops, and trol in the industry’s hands For even fish and livestock, provides example, under industry influ- a subsistence living as well as ence, Codex progressively raised cash (ESCAP 2002) the maximum residue level for Not only do the cash crops take glyphosate in soybean first to up the good agricultural land re- 5mg/kg and then to 20mg/kg, moving it from local food pro- without any public consultation duction, they also soak up the or discussion Monsanto then pesticides In India, 50 per cent applied to the Australia New Zea- of all pesticides used are for cot- land Food Authority to raise the Syngenta’s paraquat advert ton crops, which account for only allowable level in soybean in 4 per cent of the total crop area those countries from 01mg/kg to 20mg/ Syngenta violated the FAO Code of (Kaosa-Ard & Rerkasem 2000) Glo- kg, citing international harmonisation Conduct on the Distribution and Use bally, 40 per cent of insecticides have as the reason (PAN AP 1999) of Pesticides, which it claimed to sup- been used on cotton: they do not pro- The voluntary codes and guidelines port, with its promotional activities with duce food (Mota-Sanchez et al 2003) give the appearance that the industry paraquat in Thailand, following the ban In many poor communities, purchas- is cleaning itself up, that it is working on paraquat by the Malaysian govern- ing pesticides makes farming families to minimise problems, but in reality ment Article 11218 of the FAO Code even poorer Pesticides are promoted these codes are often window dress- states that promotional activities should as essential for production and poor ing, allowing business as usual behind not include inappropriate incentives or farmers are persuaded that they must a veneer of social responsibility There gifts, yet Syngenta blatantly offered buy them, even at huge cost, in order are also numerous examples where jackets, t-shirts and even motorcycles to survive The glib marketing practices companies even renege on their own and a truck as inducements to purchase of the pesticide companies are com- codes and guidelines For example its product Gramoxone (PAN AP 2004) pounded by a lack of access to critical 23 Pesticides, cash crops information on alternatives Pesticides 1 are purchased to increase the yield of The Codex Alimentarius Commission and rural poverty was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO cash crops, but they bring mounting to develop food standards, guidelines The industrial agricultural system, problems in their wake – problems that and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food rather than feeding the world, has added affect the health and wealth of the Standards Programme to the world’s starving One reason is families and inevitably deprive them PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 7 of food They are one facet of a seed/ and child labour follow in their wake bequeathed to the rural poor With fertiliser/pesticide package that results This situation has become so bad that globalisation, a process dominated by in an upward spiralling cycle of debt in Punjab, once regarded as the bread the food and chemical transnational and dependency Inevitably the pack- basket of the Indian subcontinent, corporations and international financial age is focussed on cash crops, not food, whole villages have been put up for sale institutions, there came increasing pri- and with the pesticides comes less food Globalisation of food trade, follow- vatisation of land As a result more and produced and less money to buy food ing in its footsteps, has compounded more land has been converted into Increased poverty, violence, suicides the problems that the Green Revolution plantation cash crops, taking more land away from food production, and most importantly taking more land away from small farmers and the rural poor Box 3 who have no other means of provid- Punjab – from bread basket to basket case ing food for themselves This loss of access to land has resulted in a loss of In the Bathinda district of Punjab, farmers once used to own their brick food sovereignty Where once poor and cement houses which stood on their own land They practised tradi- farmers could grow food for their fami- tional agriculture, growing a variety of food crops such as gawar, moth, lies, now only flowers are grown for grams, taramira and moong They used to sow the indigenous plant narma, the rich in Europe and America And which needed no pesticides but gave a good harvest Then came the first of those that have lost the ability to grow the cotton hybrids, A-846, introduced by the Punjab Agriculture University their own food must now work in the in 1985-86 Next came the American bollworm in 1988, controlled initially plantations and factories and face the by pesticides But by 1992 the bollworm became so severe farmers lost added indignity of daily assault with their entire cotton crop They increased their pesticide use indiscriminately: pesticides Dependency and virtual prior to 1992 they spent on average Rs500/acre By 2002 this had increased enslavement to the external market to Rs10,000/acre, with the price of cotton declining in inverse proportion have replaced dignity, food security, And as the price of cotton declined, the price of pesticides went up So did and democracy the level of debt Then the suicides began in 1999, and the pesticides be- came known as ‘farmercides’ So indebted had the farmers become through purchase of ever-greater quantities of increasingly ineffective pesticides, 3 Poisoning the people that even when they sold their land they were still in debt and the debt hat is the point of on the one continued to grow Whand using pesticides to suppos- Source: Results of a survey by voluntary organisation, Kheti Virasat, as reported in edly increase food production, and on AgBioIndia, 01 July 2002 the other hand poisoning the people so they don’t need the food? Accurate statistics on pesticide poi- Box 4 soning do not exist for various reasons, “but the impact of pesticide use on Case study: taking control locally with human health is believed to be great” low input agriculture in South India wrote the Asian Development Bank (Kaosa-ard & Rerkasem 1999, Vol Small and marginal farmers in South India became caught in an exploita- 2(3):15) They reported World Re- tive debt spiral, using ever increasing levels of external inputs in an attempt search Institute figures of 50-100 mil- to achieve the Green Revolution promise of higher yields which would in lion people affected The World Health turn realise the dream of extravagant lifestyles Instead, trapped by the Organisation has estimated that more need to borrow to purchase inputs and by interest rates of up to 180 per than 200,000 people are killed by pes- cent, they reaped a harvest of poverty In Tamil Nadu, farmers groups from ticides worldwide every year That is 80 villages met together in 2000 to evolve a solution They adopted an 547 men, women and children every approach that preserves agri-biodiversity to minimise risk to family food day killed by pesticides A recent pes- security, with an emphasis on greater control of material, skill and knowl- ticide surveillance exercise in Central edge inputs, including local processing of produce External inputs have America (Murray et al 2002) revealed been reduced by 50-80 per cent, replaced by local inputs and cultural prac- that the problem may be very much tices – for example manure, local seed banks, and water conserving sum- worse than previously thought The mer ploughing Food security has improved with the change from survey indicated a 98 per cent rate of monocultures to mixed food cropping, including fruit, vegetables, and millets under-reporting of pesticide poisonings, Many farmers no longer need to borrow money from the loan sharks They with a regional estimate of 400,000 have formed their own self-help groups for saving and lending amongst poisonings per year, 76 per cent of the themselves at reasonable rates, and this method now accounts for 50-70 incidents being work-related That is per cent of crop loans The landless are involved in preparation of compost just for Central America and it repre- and vermi-compost and processing of vegetables for pickles This has in- sents 19 per cent of the population If creased employment by about 25 per cent in the off-season the same percentage is applied to Asia Source: Chanakya et al 2003 the total poisonings per year (based on the Asian Development Bank 1997 8 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS population estimate of 3,538,452,000) protein, resulting in low enzyme lev- access to training in proper use, lack of would be 67,230,000 poisoned people els, enhance vulnerability to organo- education about what to use and when, On a world scale that is 111,125,880, phosphate insecticides (Pronczuk de inability to read or understand the la- slightly above the 100 million esti- Garbino et al 2003) And so the cycle bels, unsafe storage, mixing with bare mated by the World Resources Institute of poverty and ill-health spirals upward, hands, lack of protective clothing and Sri Lanka reputedly has one of the as the already malnourished become climatic conditions that make it impos- highest mortality and morbidity rates even less able, through pesticide poi- sible and/or undesirable to use anyway from pesticide poisoning in Asia soning, to provide food for themselves Even though the statistics are not 21,429 people were admitted to state Unsurprisingly however the market- precise there is no question that the hospitals with pesticide poisoning, in ing efforts of the pesticide industry are impact of pesticides on human health 1998 alone, and 2,250 died there At often focussed on developing countries, is of a huge magnitude and that it is least another 500-1,000 died before because the numbers of potential us- the people of developing countries hospital admission Because many peo- ers are so great and the opportunity to who are worst affected It is here also ple with minor symptoms do not go to make profits are huge Regulations are that two of the most sensitive groups hospital the total number of cases could weaker and the ability to enforce those of people – women and children – are be as high as 100,000 per year The that do exist considerably less Once most exposed majority of deaths followed suicide at- upon a time pesticides were a problem tempts Organophosphates (fenthion), of the wealthy agricultural nations But 31 Exposure organochlorines (endosulfan) and the as these countries move slowly to re- Hundreds of millions of people are herbicide paraquat were responsible for duce their own environmental contami- exposed to pesticides every year An almost all of the fatalities (Pronczuk de nation, their older, more hazardous estimated 50 million people work in Garbino et al 2003) pesticides find a home in the poorer plantations in developing countries and Pesticides, poverty, food, and health nations – pesticides such as paraquat, an additional 500 million in other are inextricably linked in a vicious cy- endosulfan, terbufos, methamidophos, forms of agricultural, including as sea- cle The greater the level of poverty, methomyl, aluminium phosphide, sonal workers (Pronczuk de Garbino et the greater the exposure to the worst aldicarb, carbofuran, and methyl par- al 2003) Many others are exposed in- pesticides, and the less the ability to athion – where they are cheaper than directly through contamination of food, do something about it – from saying the newer, less hazardous products water, household dust, etc A third form no to pesticides, to seeking treatment According to ESCAP (2002), poor farm- of exposure is intentional, ie suicide for health effects The greater the pov- ers in Asia commonly use the most toxic Occupational erty, generally, the worse the adverse pesticides, categorised as Toxicity Class effects are likely to be For where there I and II by the World Health Organisa- In some countries pesticide poison- is poverty, there is often malnutrition, tion But it is precisely here that the ing is considered endemic because of and malnutrition can worsen the effects risks of pesticide use are at their great- the permanently high incidence of of pesticides: for example low levels of est – because of malnutrition, lack of both acute and chronic health effects

Box 5 development There are constant deaths Kamukhaan – a Poisoned Village from disease Food sources have dimin- ished and poverty increased Coconut Kamukhaan, a community of 170 families, on Mindanao, trees stopped bearing fruit, the soil be- Philippines, was once a thriving village with a comfortable came infertile, crops became difficult lifestyle, a place so rich in natural resources that people to grow Pigs and chickens would die never went hungry Trees and vegetation were abundant every time spraying occurred Animals and the seas teemed with marine life But the development, that wandered on to the plantation or fed on grass nearby in 1981, of the LADECO banana plantation right next door also died Animals that drank from the streams died The marked the beginning of poisoning and poverty river and sea, once teeming with The plantation is aerially sprayed two fish, is now heavily polluted and all or three times a month Each time the but barren What fish can be caught villagers smell strong fumes, even in are contaminated causing the villag- their homes Their eyes sting, skin itches, ers, now desperate for food, to get they experience feelings of suffocation, sick The loss of natural resources weakness and nausea, children come in as a result of the spraying has forced coughing from their play Skin diseases most of the men in the community and other illnesses are rampant – fever, to find work on the plantation – dizziness, vomiting Others experience increasing their exposure to pesti- stomachache, backache, headache, asthma, thyroid cancer, cides and increasing their health goitre, diarrhoea, and anaemia Infants are born with a problems The spraying continues range of abnormalities, from cleft palate to badly disfig- So does the poisoning and poverty ured bodies, and experience impaired mental and physical Source: Quijano 2002 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 9

ing of pesticide-contaminated clothing Their physiological and intellectual can expose the whole family, but par- development may be impaired by these ticularly women, to toxic burdens of exposures (Gee D, undated) chemicals Pesticide contaminated dust ESCAP (2002) reports that, in Ma- finds its way into the house too In one laysia, newspaper accounts of high level study in the USA researchers found that of residues in food crops are frequent, the concentrations of organophosphate and that “indisciminate use of pesti- insecticides in household dust in homes cides, particularly by vegetable produc- a quarter of a mile away from ers, has led to increasing concern over was greater than in the orchards (Simcox the safety of locally produced vegeta- et al 1995) Exposure can also be ex- bles High levels of illegal residues are treme with the “public health” fogging also reported in China (Jiang et al of residential areas with pesticides such 2003) and India (Kumari et al 2003; as malathion for mosquito control Fly, Mukherjee 2003) or insect, sprays are ubiquitous in many urban homes These products are not Epidemic poisonings caused by acci- safe: they can cause cancer, immune dental contamination of food, resulting suppression and other health problems in high mortality and morbidity rates, (eg Xiaomei et al 2002) are not uncommon Incorrect packag- ing, labelling or storage, together with Suicides similarity with foodstuffs are factors The Oil palm plantation sprayers in Malaysia often suffer from skin burns, irritation and Suicides with pesticides have been contamination, often of flour or sugar, sores, nail discolouration, and dropping of widely reported in India, Surinam, Ec- frequently occurs during transportation the nails—associated with the use of or storage Other deaths occur after the paraquat Photo: PAN AP uador, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Samoa, and other countries Financial hardship eating of seeds dressed for sowing Poi- soning may also occur when women specifically related to occupational ex- and loss of land are often behind these prepare pesticide formulations without posure (Pronczuk de Garbino et al suicides, and they are generally dis- any protective clothing, and then also 2003) counted when the effects of pesticides are examined because they are so- the food in the workplace or home In Sri Lanka occupational pesticide called ‘self-inflicted’ deaths That these Drinking water poisoning is regarded as a serious prob- suicides often occur because of the spi- lem (ESCAP 2002) In Malaysia, be- ral of debt perpetuated by the purchase Pesticides find their way into drink- tween 1982 and 1993, 51-71 per cent of ever more pesticides to beat pesti- ing water all over the world, at levels of farmers surveyed in two granary ar- cide resistance escapes such critics that can cause acute poisoning or chronic eas experienced symptoms associated Additionally, these deaths may not be ill-health through ongoing exposure to with pesticide poisoning (Arumugam quite as self-inflicted as previously as- low levels On a tea plantation in Sri 1992) Workers in plantations average sumed: htere is a concern that expo- Lanka, herbicide spraying was carried 262 spraying days/year, seven hours per sure to organophosphate insecticides out one morning in an area that included day, mostly without protective cloth- may be part of the problem because a very small stream of water – which ing, with severe health consequences these chemicals can cause depression led to the main water tank supplying (Joshi 2002) In Brazil a high proportion of farm the houses below the sprayed area By ESCAP (2002) reports that pesticide workers were found to have minor psy- midday over 50 men, women and chil- poisoning has become “a serious health chiatric disorders strongly associated dren became ill and had to be hospital- problem for millions of Thai farmers” with pesticide exposures (Farid et al ised (Pronczuk de Garbino et al 2003) The average rate of increase of pesti- 1999) In another study Colorado farm- Even bottled water-based soft drinks cide poisoning during the years 1971- ers who sprayed organophosphate in- have been found to contain pesticides 1988 was 251 per cent per year, secticides were nearly six times more residues In India a range of organo- compared with the annual increase in likely to suffer symptoms of depression chlorine and organophosphate insecti- pesticide use during that period of 185 (Stallones & Beseler 2002) cides were found in drinks such as per cent – from 74 reported cases in Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Moun- Food risidues 1971 to 2,170 reported cases in 1981 tain Dew and 7 other bottled drinks all ESCAP acknowledges that many pesti- Food that should nourish and sustain made by two American companies Lin- cide poisoning cases may never be re- good health often contains remnants dane and chlorpyrifos were found in ported, as many victims do not go to a of the pesticdes used to grow it These 100 per cent of samples, malathion in doctor or are not diagnosed correctly pesticides may cause acute poisoning 97 per cent and DDT in 81 per cent, at even death if the levels are high levels that ranged up to 87 times higher In the home enough, or chronic poisoning at low than the amount considered acceptable Pesticide exposure is not simply a levels Infants are especially suscepti- by the European Commission (Mathur feature of the work place Pesticides are ble to low levels of residues, since they et al 2003) A parliamentary investi- carried into the home on clothing and eat eight times more food per kilogram gation corroborated the findings, caus- equipment (Knishkowy & Baker 1986; of bodyweigh than adults do - as well ing the parliament to ban its cafeterias McDiarmid & Weaver 1993) The wash- as having greater biological sensitivity from serving Pepsi and Coke and the 10 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Box 6 the wet flour used to make idlis Forty- the remote Andean farming commu- Food that should four people consumed idli and tea nity of Tauccamarca en Cuzco, in Peru, They experienced nausea, vomiting al- in 1999 The school children were ac- nourish, but tered senses, seizures, diarrhoea, ab- cidentally poisoned when they drank poisons instead dominal pain One died of asphyxia a powdered milk substitute that had Two people remained unconscious for been contaminated with the pesticide Case 1: India - malathion 24 hours, and 30 remained uncon- methyl parathion (Rosenthal 2003) On July 6 1997, 60 men aged 20- scious for up to 18 hours 30 attended a communal lunch in a (Venkateswarlu et al 2000) Case 5 - Philippines community kitchen in India That On March 9, 2005, a poisoning in- morning the kitchen, including raw in- Case 3 – Taiwan - methamidophos cident in Bohol, Philippines caused the gredients stored in open jute bags, had Four people suffered a variety of death of 30 people and the hospitali- been sprayed with the insecticide symptoms after eating vegetables with sation of more than 100 others Most malathion Within three hours of eat- high residues of methamidophos The of the patients, after eating a cassava ing the chapatti, cooked vegetables, symptoms included vomiting, diar- snack immediately experienced ab- pulses and halva, all 60 men devel- rhoea, abdominal pain, dizziness, dominal pains, dizziness, vomiting, oped nausea, vomiting and abdomi- headache, salivation, cold sweating, salivation, headaches, diarrhoea, in- nal pain All were taken to primary weakness, tachycardia, and urinary in- voluntary urination, convulsions, and healthcare centres Fifty-six were dis- continence The vegetables contained loss of consciousness Some had pin- charged the same day; 3 developed residues up to 510 times higher than point pupils Red blood cell cholineste- muscle weakness, respiratory disease the maximum permitted level rase levels were severely depressed in and lowered consciousness, eventually Methamidophos is used illegally on most patients These are all symptoms recovering, but the fourth man died leafy vegetables by many farmers be- of organophosphate or carbamate in- 10 days later (Chaudhry et al 1998) cause it is cheap and highly potent secticide poisoning, and it is suspected (Wu et al 2001) that the flour or coconut oil used in Case 2: India – endosulfan the cooking of the cassava snacks was At a rural roadside food stall a half- Case 4 - Peru contaminated with carbaryl (pers filled bottle of endosulfan, without its Twenty-four children died and eight- comm Dr Romy Quijano, March 16 lid, was stored on a shelf It fell into een others were severely poisoned in 2005)

defence ministry issued a circular or- work and raise their children in a toxic chlorine lindane has been found to be dering its clubs to stop selling the drinks environment – mixing the pesticides, three times greater than for men (Pes- (Singh 2004) harvesting the pesticide-drenched ticides Safety Directorate 1999) And crops, weeding whilst the insecticides once there, fat-loving pesticides may 32 Gender issues are being applied, thinning sprayed reside in the body longer in women Women are particularly susceptible crops, washing out the pesticide con- than in men (Hardell 2003) to the effects of pesticides, due to tainers or washing pesticide-contami- Because women have more body fat, physiological characteristics, and socio- nated clothing They are less likely to they carry greater burdens of fat-lov- cultural and economic circumstances receive formal training in reduced risk ing pesticides in their bodies, toxic de- They are the poorest of the poor: al- handling practices In Chile there are posits that exert their effects long after most two-thirds of rural women in de- at least two reported poisoning epi- exposure They pass them on to the veloping countries are from low-income demics amongst women working in next generation across the placenta and households, and the poorest amongst recently sprayed fields In 1996, 58 of in breast milk, creating an ever-greater these are the women that head their 64 reported poisonings were women; burden of ill-health for future genera- household for reasons such as male and in 1997, of the 120 reported tions For those women who are aware migration in search of work In some poisonings 110 were women, nearly all that their breast milk is laced with DDT parts of Asia women head 35-40 per employed in the flower industry and scores of other pesticides and in- cent of rural households (ESCAP 2002) (Wesseling et al 1998) In Southeast dustrial chemicals, the knowledge that Women eat the last, the least and the Asia women provide 90 per cent of the they are passing these on to their chil- left-overs and so, where food is scarce, labour for rice cultivation (Dinham dren is profoundly distressing they suffer greater levels of malnutri- 2003) More than half of the planta- Women’s higher level of hormonally tion and hence are more susceptible to tion workers in Malaysia are women sensitive tissues makes them more vul- the effects of pesticides (Joshi et al 2002) They are severely over-exposed to pesticides nerable to the effects of pesticides, es- In some countries women make up pecially those that are called endocrine 85 per cent or more of the pesticide Biological sensitivity disruptors, ie are capable of effecting applicators on commercial farms and Women may absorb pesticides profound changes on hormonally-sen- plantations, often working whilst preg- through their skin more easily than men sitive tissues Their increased fat ex- nant or breastfeeding Even if they do – dermal absorption of the organo- change, for example during pregnancy not directly apply the pesticides, they and lactation, together with the cyclic PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 11

Table 2: Some acute symptoms of pesticide poisoning numb lips, tongue weakness, fatigue, lethargy Box 7 sore throat dizziness Acute poisoning of Cashew blurred vision disorientation, confusion Factory workers, Kerala, India headache inarticulate speech salivation depression On Monday June 17th, 2002, workers entered the nose bleed memory loss cashew peeling shed and were immediately taken ill - swelling difficulty in walking with nausea, vomiting, giddiness, breathlessness, and chest pain, tightness, wheezing anxiety, restlessness some fell unconscious 103 women were hospitalised suffocation, difficult breathing involuntary twitching Malathion had been sprayed on the previous Satur- sweating hypertension day to control insects Between February 2000 and burning skin drop in blood pressure January 2003, there were at least 10 such incidents itching rapid pulse involving the pesticides chlorpyrifos, malathion or blisters muscular pain, stiffness methyl parathion, with in one case 227 women hos- discoloured irregular nails back pain pitalised Other symptoms reported included diar- nausea, vomiting seizures rhoea, persistent headache, eye irritation, stomach abdominal cramps coma pain, loss of appetite, pain in joints uncontrolled urination death Source: A Dossier on the Pesticide Exposure of Cashew diarrhoea vaginal pain Factory Workers, Kerala, India February 2003 Thanal Sources include: Timbrell 1991; Arumugam 1992; Joshi et al 2002; Conservation Action & Information Network, India Habib 2003; Reeves & Rosas 2003; Vodouhe 2003 nature of hormonal changes, add to matter to deny the suffering of mil- and endocrine, reproductive, and im- that greater sensitivity (Howard 2003) lions of people caused by exposure to mune systems, are extremely suscepti- There is evidence that oestrogen en- pesticides ble to disruption, resulting in effects hances the effects of chemicals on the Chronic poisoning may arise as a long that are often permanent To com- nervous system (Bell et al 1997) It is term sequel to an initial acute dose – pound this problem, children are of- one of the reasons put forward to ac- for example organophosphate insecti- ten disproportionately exposed to count for the significantly elevated level cides, well known for being acutely very chemical contaminants because of the of multiple chemical sensitivity toxic, can also cause long term dam- way they breathe, eat, drink, and play amongst peri-menopausal women, age to the nervous system and under- They have higher dietary intake in re- much of which is attributed to pesti- mine the immune system More often lationship to size and have greater body cides: 70-80 per cent of sufferers are chronic effects are caused by the on- burdens of chemicals Additionally their women (Miller & Mitzel 1995) going low dose exposure to mixtures immature detoxification pathways of- ten result in increased impacts of toxic 33 Health effects of chemicals Visible acute effects may just be the tip of the iceberg, with a exposures when compared to adults There are two types of health effects lifetime of chronic suffering lying just (Schettler 2002) Recent research from resulting from exposure to pesticides: below the surface Increasing rates of Sweden concludes that cancer risk is acute and chronic Acute poisoning has skin lesions on women workers in Cen- generally been the most recognised tral America give rise to concern that, form of effects The other side of the although these women may not be coin, long-hidden from view but now acutely poisoned, they may suffer can- gaining more attention, is that of cer or reproductive effects in the long chronic poisoning In addition, pesti- term (Wesseling 2003) cides may aggravate existing medical conditions, both acute and chronic, Children such as asthma and allergies, heart and Children are especially sensitive to immune system disorders the effects of pesticides and other toxic Acute effects are often confused with chemicals Although links between ex- common illnesses, such as vomiting, posures to toxic chemicals and health headaches, respiratory problems, eye impacts have been known for centu- and skin irritation, and stomach trou- ries, recent research documents an ex- bles, and so links with pesticide expo- panding list of previously unrecognised sure have been easy to discount On effects after foetal or infant exposures the other hand chronic effects are com- (NRC 2000) The developing foetus and plex and difficult to link back to pesti- small child are particularly vulnerable Children in the village of Kasargod in cide exposure and, especially, to prove to these chemicals During foetal and early childhood development, cells are Kerala, India, are often born blind While Hence chemical companies, govern- their eyes appear ‘normal’, the nerves are ment regulators, and other proponents rapidly dividing, and growth is dra- damaged and they are blind as a result of of pesticide use have found it a simple matic The development of the brain the neuro-toxicity of endosulfan Photo: Shree Padre/ESPAC 12 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Box 8 throughout the year In contrast, the swimming in the irrigation canals ranching lifestyle of the highlands re- with minimal group interaction Pesticides and Child quired no pesticide use, and the gov- Development: The Case Additionally, the valley children were ernment DDT applications each spring observed to be more aggressive, hitting of the Yaqui Indians for malaria control were their only siblings and becoming more upset by contact with pesticides The survey minor corrective comment by a parent Elizabeth Guillette and colleagues revealed no differences in physical (1998) carried out a study among the growth or other outward manifesta- The researchers concluded that the Yaqui people of Mexico They com- tions, but it did reveal significant dif- differences they found in mental/neu- pared two groups of children sharing ferences in functional abilities In the rological functioning were indicative of genetic, cultural and social back- following areas, the valley children brain dysfunction and held implica- grounds, one exposed to heavy pesti- showed a marked decrease in function tions for learning ability and social cide use, and the other from an area relative to the highland children: behaviour Whether the effects were where pesticide use was avoided • physical stamina; the result of one chemical, or one class When chemical pesticides and fertiliz- of chemicals, or a whole mixture of • ability to catch a ball; ers were embraced by many of the chemicals that may have been work- residents in the Yaqui valley in the late • fine eye-hand coordination; ing additively, synergistically or inde- 1940s, other residents moved into the • ability to draw a person, the valley pendently, remains unknown The foothills in protest at the change, and children providing only random un- findings, however, imply grave conse- stayed there In the valley, up to 90 differentiated lines in comparison quences for the future of the indi- separate applications of pesticides with the highland children’s easily vidual, the family, and society as a were made per year, including multi- recognisable human figures; whole They point to the necessity of ple organochlorine and organophos- • recall after 30 minutes, although considering the broader picture of pes- phate mixtures and pyrethroids As immediate recall was equivalent; ticide exposure, rather than being lim- well as this agricultural use, household • group play: the valley children were ited by the toxicology of an individual insecticides were used each day less creative, roaming aimlessly or chemical under laboratory conditions

largely established during the first 20 years of life (Czene et al 2002; Hemminki & Li 2002) Chronic effects There is a very long list of chronic health problems linked to pesticide exposure Absolute proof is very diffi- cult to gather so, frequently, the find- ings of scientists and communities are challenged by the chemical corporates and ignored by the government regu- lators But nevertheless scientific find- ings from laboratory trials and epidemiological studies of exposed people, together with community- based research provide overwhelming evidence of the cruel and lasting im- pacts of pesticides Endocrine disruption Until relatively recently endocrine dis- Shruti lives in the Vaninagar area in Kasargod in Kerala, India For more than 20 years, endosulfan had been aerially sprayed in the nearby government owned cashew nut ruption was not even recognised as an plantation She was born with three deformed limbs, a congenital anomaly She hops outcome of exposure to pesticides But around on one leg Photo: Down to Earth Magazine, Vol 9, No 19 February 28, 2001 now more than 80 pesticides are sus- pected of having endocrine disrupting and hormonally-triggered cancers such early puberty (Krstevska-Konstantinova effects (Jacobs & Dinham 2003) These as breast cancer They can also impair et al 2001) Endocrine disruption oc- means that, although they may not the nervous and immune systems, and curs at levels of exposure far lower than have a direct toxic effect, they act on the body’s detoxification processes normally considered toxic and can ex- the body’s hormonal system and can (Lewis 2003) They have been linked ert effect throughout the life of the ex- lead to increases in birth defects, sexual to neurobehavioural deficits in children posed person, especially if exposed at abnormalities, reproductive failures, (Pronczuk de Garbino et al 2003), and the foetal stage of development PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 13

Birth defects and other reproductive problems Box 9 Pesticides have been linked to a Case study: Chronic Endosulfan number of reproductive problems in- Poisoning in Kasargod, Kerala cluding birth defects, infertility, delayed time to pregnancy, spontaneous abor- For 25 years the insecticide endosulfan has been aerially sprayed over tion and still births, perinatal mortal- cashew nut plantations in Kasargod District People residing in the villages ity, endometriosis, and lowered sperm within the plantation have experienced an unusually large number of seri- counts (Xu & Cho 2003) ous neurological, developmental, reproductive and other diseases, includ- ing cancer 197 cases documented, from only 123 households, revealed Maternal exposure to endocrine-dis- high levels of cancer, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy, congeni- rupting chemicals in particular appears tal anomalies and psychiatric disorders The cancers reported include ab- to increase the risk of developmental dominal, uterine, liver, and neuroblastoma Serious growth retardation and abnormalities in the reproductive or- delayed psychomotor development have been reported Endosulfan is a gans of female and male foetuses, as known neurotoxicant, blocking inhibitory receptors of the central nervous well as effecting the brain, skeleton, system and destroying the integrity of nerve cells It is also a known endo- thyroid, liver, kidney and immune sys- crine disruptor, is mutagenic and causes chromosomal aberrations tem (Colborn et al 1993) Source: Quijano RF, 2002 Many chemicals can cross the pla- centa and act on the embryo during its most vulnerable period of development Pesticides have now been linked, ei- sion in children; the depressive effects - the first three months of pregnancy, ther by laboratory evidence or epide- of organophosphates possibly resulting and particularly between days 15 and miological studies to many forms of in suicides; the mental retardation in 60 after conception Chemicals that in- cancer, including multiple myeloma, Kamukhaan In Kasargod epilepsy, cer- terfere in the development of the foe- soft tissue sarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, ebral palsy and psychiatric disorders are tus in this manner are called teratogens non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukaemia, amongst the chronic effects linked to Pesticides that are known to be tera- melanoma, neuroblastoma, Wilm’s tu- prolonged exposure to endosulfan (see togenic from animal studies include the mour; and cancer of the oesophagus, box 9) organophosphate insecticides like stomach, prostate, testis, breast, ovary, dimethoate, carbamate insecticides such Additionally, organophosphate insec- cervix, bladder thyroid, lung, brain, kid- as carbaryl, like benomyl, ticides can cause delayed neuropathy ney, pancreas, liver, colon, and rectum and herbicides such as paraquat (Garcia involving degeneration of the periph- (Zahm et al 1993; Sharpe et al 1995; 2003) There are many more Studies eral nerves in the limbs, with muscular Viel et al 1998; Zahm & Ward 1998; have linked phenoxy herbicides like 2,4- aches and pains and influenza-like Jaga & Brosius 1999; Porta et al 1999; D and the herbicide atrazine with birth symptoms There may also be person- Settimi et al 1999; Vineis et al 1999; defects (Garry et al 1996) ality change, impulsive suicidal intent, Wesseling et al 1999; Alvanja et al impaired concentration and memory, Birth defects also occur as a result of 2003; Miligi & Settimi 2003; Reeves & language disorder, heightened sense of mutagenesis, where chemicals cause the Rosas 2003) smell, deterioration of handwriting, mutation of the male or female germ A number of studies have shown links impaired tolerance of exercise, and cells A review of 65 pesticides found that between exposure of farmers to specific neuro-muscular deficits (Rosenstock et 35 of them showed some degree of ge- pesticides and particular cancers, includ- al 1991; Ahmed & Davies 1997; netic activity, ie might be implicated in ing ovarian cancer with atrazine (Donna Wesseling et al 2002) genotoxic effects (Garry et al 1996) et al 1989); breast cancer with But it is not just organophosphate in- Occupational studies have reported organochlorine insecticides (Falck et al secticides that cause chronic damage to adverse reproductive effects linked to 1992); soft tissue sarcoma, multiple the nervous system: in one study, French pesticide exposure in banana packing myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lym- workers exposed repeatedly to plants in Central America (Wesseling phoma with phenoxy herbicides like fungicides were found to have long-term 2003), grape workers in India (Rita et 2,4-D (Vineis et al 1987; Zahm et al cognitive impairment (Baldi et al 2001) al 1987), women in the Columbian 1993); and prostate cancer with me- Van Wendel et al (2001) found chronic flower industry (Restrepo et al 1990), thyl bromide (Alavanja et al 2003) nervous system effects on malaria con- and rural California women (Pastore et trol workers with long-term exposure to al 1995) Neurological, developmental effects the organochlorine DDT Endosulfan, Cancer which has caused such devastating effects There is increasing concern about, in Kasargod, is another organochlorine Over 160 pesticide active ingredients and evidence of, the effects of pesti- - found in insecticides, herbicides, cides on the central nervous system, Additionally a number of quite dif- fungicides – are now listed as possible peripheral nervous system, and the pre- ferent pesticides have now been linked carcinogens (Jacobs & Dinham 2003) birth developing brain to Parkinson’s disease, the most com- Some of these are obsolete but many mon degenerative disease of the nerv- A number of these effects have been are still in use, particularly in develop- ous system, currently affecting about mentioned already: the inferior devel- ing countries 1 per cent of the population These opmental skills and increased aggres- 14 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS include herbicides such as paraquat, et al 2003; Furlong pers comm)2 Add without rational review of the evidence 2,4-D, fungicides like maneb, and in- to that the conditions of malnutrition, to the contrary, that humanity’s exist- secticides like dieldrin and rotenone breast feeding, and just being a woman, ence depends on this nature-destroy- Other pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos, and it is plain to see that the adult male- ing approach that characterises modern dimethoate and malathion, have been based European risk assessment has chemical-based agriculture But the linked to parkinsonism, a disorder with nothing to do with the actual safety of folly of destroying that which provides symptoms like Parkinson’s disease, but women plantation workers in Malaysia, our food is becoming increasingly ap- which may be reversible (Watts 2001) or cashew nut factories in Kerala, or parent The life-support systems of small children growing up in Kamukhaan Planet Earth are intimately connected Immune effects or Kasargod and it is not possible to affect one with- Organophosphate insecticides, well out ultimately affecting them all known for being acutely very toxic, can 4 Poisoning the Many of the pesticides still in wide- also damage the immune system Environment spread use in Asia are broad spectrum (Sharma & Tomar 1992; Rodgers et al and therefore continue to have nega- 1992) So can other pesticides There is he history of environmental tive impacts on beneficial insects, birds considerable scientific evidence from Tproblems began with agriculture, and other non-target organisms, dimin- animal studies that many pesticides are with water deficits and erosion dating ishing natural and agroecological immunotoxic, exerting a variety of ef- back to the Sumerian and Babylonian biodiversity (ESCAP 2002) Environ- 3 fects on the immune system (Repetto cultures at least (Bosselmann 1995) mental effects reported from the & Baliga 1996) There are far fewer stud- But it is in the use of pesticides, and Kasargod district in India, where many ies of the actual effects on humans, but now also the genetic manipulation of villagers are ill from aerially applied ESCAP (2002) refers to “numerous stud- plants and animals to satisfy purely hu- endosulfan, include deformed calves ies carried out by Indians in India and man greed, that the - de- and disappearing honeybees Chickens, abroad [that] indicate the high impact stroying nature of humanity’s system jackals, frogs, birds and cows have all of pesticides on the immune system” of sustenance has become apparent died Calves have stunted growth Mis- Suppression of the immune system Pesticides now contaminate soil, wa- carriages, bleeding, infertility and de- makes a person much more vulnerable ter, aquatic sediment and air through- formities in domestic animals have been 4 to infections, viruses and other dis- out the planet They are found in polar reported High levels of endosulfan 5 eases, and it may explain the observa- snow, in fog and rain They are found have been found in soil, water and plant tion from Kamukhaan that the villagers in the body tissues of wild animals and tissues (Quijano RF, 2002) are suffering from increased incidence the bark of trees, worldwide6 They are implicated in mass die-offs of marine Endocrine disrupting effects of pesti- of disease It also increases vulnerabil- cides are just as profound on wildlife and ity to cancer and other diseases of the mammals, and population crashes of birds, amphibians and alligators7 Some fish as they are on humans, resulting in immune system There are millions of birth defects, reproductive failures and people world-wide who live with HIV: of them, such as the halogenated com- 12 million women in sub-Saharan Af- pound methyl bromide, contribute to 2 Dr Clement Furlong, Division of Medical rica alone (Page 2003) The link with destruction of the ozone layer (UNEP 1992) It has been widely assumed, Genomics, University of Washington, pesticides? Women whose immune sys- Seattle, February 2003 tems are not daily assaulted by immune 3 WC Lowdermilk (1953) of the US system-suppressing pesticides have a Department of Agriculture’s Soil better chance of living with HIV rather Box 10 Conservation Services also “found fields that had been farmed for thousands of than dying of AIDS Birds and animals years without soil or environmental In conclusion: just because a regula- die in Bangladesh deterioration” (Kirschenmann 1999) tory risk assessment of a pesticide de- 4 For residues in soil see Thao et al 1993, Jamila Khatum of Raini Kookana et al1998 For residues in termines that it is safe, that does not groundwater see Smith 1993, Ritter mean it actually is under the real condi- Karmakar para village observed 1990; in rivers see Frank et al 1991; in tions of use, especially in developing “We know that pesticide is seawater see Sauer et al1989; in sediment countries, or to the people who are ex- harmful When we mix the pes- see Bhattacharya 2003, Yuan 2003 For ticide in the water it expands residues in the air see Bidleman et al posed to it The legacy of poisoning 1989, Aston & Seiber 1997 like boiling milk It reacts in our briefly referred to here bears testament 5 For residues in snow see Gregor & to that Toxicological assessments of body in the same way We ob- Gummer 1989, Welch et al 1991 For pesticides are based on the estimations serve that birds and animals are pesticides in fog see Glotfelty et al 1987, Rice & Chernyak 1997 For of risk for healthy European males But dying We woman do not want to use pesticides because we pesticides in rain see Kirknel 1992, it is now known that the Asian popula- Trevisan et al 1993, Doerfler & tion is much more susceptible to orga- love our chicken, cows and Scheunert 1997, Nohara, et al 1997 nophosphate poisoning than Europeans: goats like our own family” 6 For residues in animals see Colborn & 36-56 per cent of some Asian races lack Source: “BEESH” Poisoning of Smolen 1996, Ayas et al 1997, Reid 1999, Kunisue et al 2003 For residues Women’s Lives in Bangladesh a particular gene that helps protect in the bark of trees see Simonich & against diazinon and chlorpyrifos, UBINIG and Pesticide Action Hites 1995 Network Asia and the Pacific, whereas only 9 per cent of those of 7 Johnston & McCrea 1992, Newton & Dhaka and Penang 2003 Northern European origin lack it (Costa Wyllie 1992, Woodward et al 1993, Colborn et al 1996, Graf 1999 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 15

Table 3: Arthropods Resistance to Pesticides Rank Common name Species Hosts No of compounds resistant to 1 Two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae cotton, flowers, fruit, vegetables 69 2 Diamondback moth Plutella xylostella crucifers, nasturtium 69 3 Peach-potato aphid Myrzus persicae fruit, vegetables, trees, grains, tobacco 68 4 Cattle tick Boophilus microplus cattle 40 5 German cockroach Blattella germanica urban 40 6 Tobacco budworm Heliothis virsecens chickpea, corn, cotton, tobacco 39 7 Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata , pepper, potato, 38 8European red mite Panonychus ulmi fruit trees 38 9 Mosquito Culex pipiens humans 33 10 Whitefly Bermisia tabaci crops, cotton 32 11 Egyptian cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis alfalfa, cotton, potato, vegetables 32 12 Dawson aphid Phorodon humuli hop, plum 32 13 Mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus humans 28 14 Cotton/melon aphid Aphis gossypii cotton, vegetables 27 15 House fly Musca domestica humans, animals 26 16 Bollworm, earworm Helicoverpa armigera cotton, corn, tomato 25 17 Red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum stored grain, peanuts, sorghum 25 18Sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina cattle, 24 19 Bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini ornamental plants, stored onions 22 20 Malaria mosquito Anopheles albimanus humans 21 Source: Mota-Sanchez et al 2003 sexual abnormalities, and eventually to 20 times over a period of 4 to 8 weeks whelming majority of reported cases in- population crashes (Colborn et al 1993, – with no success In fact the density of volve resistance to organophosphates 1996; Guillette et al 1994) the pest population increased with the (44 per cent) and organochlorines (32 Contamination of the environment increase in frequency of spraying per cent) This is not surprising as these with pesticides is rife throughout Asia (Kaosa-ard & Rerkasem 1999) classes of compounds have been used For example, ESCAP (2002) reports con- for more than half a century, but there tamination of water and fish in rice eco- 5 Nature fights back: is a trend of increasing resistance to the systems with pesticides, in Malaysia, and resistance to pesticides newer compounds where these older pollution of air, soil and water in Sri ones are removed from the market, for Lanka It also reports that in Thailand 51 Insect pest resistance example in the USA Generally, the first cases of resistance have been reported “an estimated 70 per cent of ap- – leading to decreased within 3-5 years after a compound has plied pesticides is washed away and production been extensively used – for DDT it was leaches into the soil and water, re- he resistance of insects to pesticides 1947, following its rapid post war re- sulting in excessive pesticide residue Twas first reported as long ago as deployment from military human health contamination in the local 1914 – the San Jose scale to lime sul- use to agriculture Even the biological and food chain It is not surprising phur in the state of Washington, USA – insecticides such as Bacillus thuringiensis to find a large amount of land and and has since become recognised as a are now showing resistance problems water in the country contaminated problem of considerable proportions (Mota-Sanchez et al 2003) Seven in- with pesticides” (p178) New resistance was reported steadily sect species have shown resistance to Secondary pest infestation caused from 1943 (two-spotted spider mite) Bacillus species, spanning mainland USA, by heavy use of pesticides when synthetic chemical insecticide use Central America, Brazil, Hawaii, Philip- began to escalate By 1991, 504 arthro- pines, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and Insecticide use upsets the balance of pod species were reported to be resist- France The insects involved include the ecosystem, wiping out many ben- ant to one or more of over 200 those resistant to many chemical com- eficial insect species, resulting some- insecticide compounds By the year pounds, including tobacco budworm, times in the development of new pest 2000, 540 species were resistant to one Colorado potato beetle, mosquito, beet species Perhaps one of the most graphic or more insecticides (Whalon & Mota- armyworm and diamondback moth illustrations of this is the brown Sanchez 2003)8 Unfortunately, only (Mota-Sanchez et al 2003) planthopper epidemic This insect had 35 per cent of these are natural pest previously been “an inconsequential Resistance is a micro-evolutionary enemies such as predators and para- inhabitant” of Asian rice crops, but as process of genetic adaptation through sites (Mota-Sanchez et al 2003) its natural predators disappeared, un- selection It comes about through re- der the barrage of insecticides, it became Insects now show resistance to a total peated exposure to pesticides After 60 a menace to the rice crops, the severity of 305 different chemical compounds years of synthetic insecticide applica- of that menace increasing in direct pro- (Mota-Sanchez et al 2003) The over- tions, insects all over the world have portion to the intensity of insecticide been exposed to, and selected by, one 8 This figure does not include resistance use In Northern Sumatra, , to fungicides, herbicides and other or more pesticides making it very diffi- farmers were treating their rice crops 6 pesticides, which also occurs cult to find any insect pests that can be 16 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Table 4: Arthropod resistance: total cases and compounds of genes escaping from plants deliber- ately engineered to be resistant to her- No of compounds No of cases Chemical class Percentage with resistance of resistance bicides The first cases were reported Organophosphates 112 1,136 441% in the 1950s, but it was not until the Organochlorines 26 844 326% 1980s that the incidence of resistant Pyrethroids 33 224 85% weeds started to skyrocket, continuing Carbamates 35 202 79% to increase throughout the 1990s and Bacterials 3846 18% showing no sign of tailing off Miscellaneous 30 46 18% Fumigants 6 21 08% As of February 2005, there are 293 Insect growth regulators 10 21 08% biotypes of 175 species in over 270,000 Arsenicals 2 13 05% fields world-wide that have been rec- Organotins 3 803% ognised as being resistant to herbicides Formamidines 2 6 02% (Heap 2005) Resistance has been Avermectins 2 6 02% found to at least 117 herbicide active Chloronicotinoids 1 6 01% ingredients, approximately 40 per cent Rotenone 1 2 01% of the total registered herbicide active Sulphur compounds 2 2 01% ingredients But this may not be the full Dinitrofenols 1 1 004% story: many of the lesser-used actives Phenylpyrazoles 1 1 004% have not been tested on resistant Total 305 2,585 populations - often it is assumed that Source: Mota-Sanchez et al 2003 they will not work as they have the same mode of action as herbicides that considered non-selected Some insects people per year Anopheles exhibits are no longer effective Given this, and are now resistant to so many different higher resistance also because of indi- that most herbicide modes of action classes of compounds that farmers are rect selection through the intense insec- have cases of resistance, weed scientist forced back to where they started: us- ticide selection pressure on insect pests Dr Ian Heap, who is compiling resist- ing cultural practices as control meas- in cotton, which also indirectly selects ance figures, estimates that the true ures For example, in some places in immature stages of mosquitoes in breed- percentage of actives with a degree of the USA, the Colorado potato beetle ing sites and adult stages in resting sites resistance would be closer to 80 per has developed resistance to more than (Mota-Sanchez et al 2003) cent (Heap pers com 13/8/03) In Asia, 38 insecticides involving nearly all Many plants are capable of defen- herbicide resistance has been found in chemical classes, and farmers now use sive chemistry, ie producing toxins to 10 countries, involving 32 weeds and propane flamers and plastic lining of protect themselves against herbivorous 27 herbicides Of these 32 weeds, four trenches to protect their crops (Mota- insects The insects in turn have a very make it into the world-wide top ten Sanchez et al 2003) In some species, long history – perhaps as long as 350 “most important herbicide-resistant resistance is confined to particular geo- million years – of evolving their own species”: redroot pigweed, barnyard graphical agroecosystems With other mechanisms to defeat these toxins It grass, goose grass and horseweed species, such as the diamondback is not surprising therefore that they can The problem can become quite se- moth, resistance is found throughout so quickly evolve mechanisms to de- vere where farmers have come to rely the insect’s global range feat the human-applied toxins The on chemical herbicides to manage The global impact of pesticide resist- evolutionary endpoint is the same: re- weeds in their crops Resistant barnyard ance has been estimated to be more sistance through selection The lesson grass affects more than 2 million acres than US $4 billion annually Crop loss, for humanity is that the application of in China The use of isoproturon for con- economic failure, environmental con- toxic chemicals against insects will al- trolling little-seed canary grass in the tamination, food residues, human ill- ways be unsustainable in the long run, rice-wheat system in the Harayana and health and even suicide are attendant as the insects are likely to continue to Punjab regions of North-western India upon pesticide resistance (see box 3 evolve to beat the new chemistry, has resulted in resistant weeds infest- “Punjab: from bread basket to basket whether it be synthetic chemicals or ing more than one million hectare of case”, p 6) High levels of insecticide biopesticides There is no reason to wheat The area is reported to be in- use can be a consequence as well as a believe that scientists will devise a creasing In a bid to find a solution to cause of resistance In Tapachula, south- chemical that an insect cannot find its the problem, other herbicides were tried ern Mexico, high levels of insecticide way around Therefore, devising and unsuccessfully, according to the weed use, together with high temperatures, implementing cultural and manage- science website wwwweedscienceorg: frequent rain and high levels of pest in- ment practices that keep insects in • cross-resistance to diclofop-methyl cidence led to applications of more than check, rather than relying on being one was observed after two applications 29 litres of active ingredients per hec- chemical step ahead of the insects, in the field; tare Three principal mosquito varieties would better serve the interests of feed- – Culex pipiens, Culex quinquefasciatus, ing the world • inconsistent results with pendimethalin and Anopheles albimanus – have devel- were found under field conditions; oped resistance to many insecticides 52 Herbicide resistance • lower level of resistance has also been Malaria alone, carried by Anopheles, re- Herbicide resistance is also a grow- observed with clodinafop-propargyl sults in the death of about 2 million ing problem, even without the threat and fenoxaprop-P-ethyl in the fields PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 17

53 Fungicide resistance Table 5: Herbicide Resistance in Asia Resistance to fungicides has also been Countries (no weeds) Weeds Herbicides increasing world-wide since the intro- China (4) American sloughgrass atrazine duction of systemic9 fungicides in the Indonesia (1) Annual bluegrass azimsulfuron early 1970s Even the newest fungicide India (1) Arrowleafed monochoria bensulfuron-methyl Japan (16) Asian marshweed benthiocarb group, the strobilurins, are experienc- Malaysia (12) Asiatic hawksbeard butachlor ing spreading resistance Philippines (1) Azena chlorotoluron According to figures on the industry’s South Korea (5) Azetogarashi cinosulfuron CropLife International website some Sri Lanka (2) Barnyardgrass cyclosulfamuron Taiwan (1) Black nightshade cyhalofop-butyl resistance has been found for 23 out Thailand (3) Disc water hyssop 2,4-D of the 39 classes of fungicides listed Globe fringerush diquat (FRAC 2003) Whilst world-wide figures Goosegrass ethoxysulfuron are hard to find, an indication of the Gooseweed fenoxaprop-p-ethyl problem is revealed by the following Guyanese arrowhead fluazifop-p-butyl figures from the UK: Hairy fleabane glyphosate Horseweed halosulfuron-methyl • number of crops affected: at least 25, Inu-hotarui imazosulfuron including grains, fruit and vegetables Japanese foxtail isoproturon • number of resistant pathogens: at Kikashigusa mesosulfuron-methyl least 44 (Locke et al 2001) Little seed canary grass metsulfuron-methyl Livid amaranth paraquat Low false pimpernel propanil 6 Feeding the world Mizohakobe propaquizafop better without Mizuaoi/moolokzam pyrazosulfuron-ethyl Philadelphia fleabane quizalofop-p-tefuryl pesticides Redflower ragleaf simazine Redroot pigweed tudy after study has shown that if Saramollagrass Smore food is needed to feed the Smallflower umbrella sedge world’s population the best way to pro- Sprangletop vide it is to give up the pesticide ad- Sumatran fleabane diction Yet the myth that pesticides are Yellowbur-head essential for adequate production lives 10 countries 32 weeds 26 herbicides on in the minds of many The myth Source: Heap 2005 survives only because its perpetuators have focussed attention on a narrowly In the pesticide-dependent agricul- places emphasis on the autonomy of defined set of criteria appealing to the tural system biodiversity is minimised farmers not their subservience to multi- quick-fix mentality that fails to grasp This occurs either intentionally through national chemical/seed companies and the broad, and long-term, understand- single species planting and weed eradi- banks It integrates natural regenera- ing of what sustainable production re- cation, or accidentally through the ex- tive practices such as nutrient and wa- ally is, and because it suits the profit termination of beneficial and ter recycling, nitrogen fixation and soil interests of the transnational corpora- complimentary insect species as by-kills rejuvenation, improving the ability of tions that peddle the pesticides of insecticide use Beneficial fungal and the soil to provide sustained yields over bacterial relationships suffer the same time (Pretty & Hine 2001) It encour- Pesticides are a fundamental prop of fate The removal of the beneficial or- ages biodiversity that functions both as the industrialised agricultural system ganisms allows an escalation of pests a diversification of yield and as natural This system is underpinned by a and diseases that are otherwise held managers of pests and weeds It pro- reductionist science that reduces a com- in balance by the complex natural and motes social cohesion, encouraging plex ecological system into a small introduced biodiversity, and hence cre- people to work together to solve local handful of parameters: inputs and out- ates a self-perpetuating need for chemi- problems, to utilise traditional knowl- puts It ignores the interrelationships cal pesticides in an attempt to exert edge, and to be innovative and skilful between the elements of the system control over the unstable monocultural producers of good quality food whilst and how they support and sustain each agroecosystem The resulting situation conserving resources and enhancing the other Monoculture is the norm, with is not sustainable, and chemical pesti- environment It recognises that farm- productivity defined by the yield of a cides have to be continually applied to ers and rural communities are part of single crop Production focuses on control pests and diseases, thus per- the agroecosystem It requires a focus short-term maximum yield of the crop petuating the suppression of beneficial on feeding the family and community – inevitably to the eventual detriment diversity and system imbalance rather than the cash economy Feed- of that yield, and to the detriment of ing the world sustainably requires an the nutritional status of farmers in de- Feeding the world better depends on ecosystem approach that nurtures the veloping countries an agriculture that is sustainable, that places emphasis on incorporating a di- ecological, biological and social proc- versity of local natural resources not esses that in some countries have sup- 9 Capable of being absorbed and imported synthetic chemicals, and that ported food production for many transported throughout the plant thousands of years 18 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

The ESCAP (2002) report Organic Ag- Nayakrishi movement in Bangla- in Bolivia, some of the most difficult riculture in Asia and Rural Poverty Alle- desh, an improvement of the health growing areas in the world, farmers viation found a positive interrelationship status of their members could also have increased potato yields three-fold between and improve- be observed” by using green manures; and in Peru ments in rural livelihoods, noting that: There are many studies which dem- restoration of Incan terraces has brought “In addition to the positive effects onstrate that yields have been increased 150 per cent increases in yields and the on employment and income, the by removing pesticides from the system ability to withstand floods, droughts production of food crops together Some of these focus on the single out- and frosts at nearly 4000 metres alti- with commercial crops is beneficial put parameter of crop yield and, even tude (Scialaba & Hattam 2002) Sus- for household food security The gen- so, show that increases can be achieved tainable agroecological systems can erally higher biodiversity on organic by reducing or removing pesticides But out-produce industrial agriculture in farms, the significant increase in the this simplistic approach undervalues the times of drought (Peterson et al 1999) yield of staple crops, the cultivation non-pesticide systems – traditional, or- The importance of this should not be of vegetables for home consumption ganic or ecological agriculture – for they overlooked, for about 39 per cent of and sale, the integration of food usually deliver much more than mere Asia’s population lives in areas prone 10 crops into unpolluted cotton fields increased production They deliver food to drought and desertification There and the combination of crops and security, better health, a cleaner envi- are 350 million hectares of degraded animals including aquaculture where ronment, the reversal of land degrada- land in China, India and Pakistan alone, this is applicable, all this increases tion, local control and retention of land in large part due to deforestation and the availability of food at household ownership They can produce crops on agricultural activities The Asian Devel- level At the same time products are marginal land where industrial agricul- opment Bank has estimated that, in to- available for marketing In the ture cannot: in high mountain regions tal, about one third of Asia’s agricultural land has been degraded over the past 30 years (ESACP 2002) Rural poverty is worst in these areas Box 11 There are many interwoven threads Case study: Nayakrishi Andolon - community– that contribute to the successful produc- based organic farming in Bangladesh tivity of non-pesticide dependent farms, and in turn to the provision of sufficient Nayakrishi Andolon grew out of the failures of the Green Revolution in food within a socially just framework the early 1990s Poor farmers unable to generate sufficient income to pay Sustainable agricultural practices tend back their loans for agrochemical inputs became increasingly indebted Farm- to be synergistic, having a multiplying ers had observed declining soil fertility; declining fish and frog populations; effect on productivity that defies the increased pest problems; a decline in fodder for livestock; and fewer birds, analysis of the reductionist method of bees and butterflies and so poor pollination and low yields of fruit trees measuring a single variable at a time Women became aware that the pesticides were affecting their health and (Pretty & Hine 2001) Sustainable sys- that of their children, with increased gastric, respiratory and child-bearing tems must be viewed as whole systems problems They were also being used to commit suicide and murder Women are the backbone of the Nayakirshi farmers network: most of the extension 61 Some important workers are women, and so are the majority of farmers They are poor, with features of sustainable 75 per cent having less than 04 hectares of land agricultural systems The movement is based on ten guidelines arising from the farmers’ expe- rience and knowledge These include no use of pesticides or chemical ferti- 6-1-1 Size/land reform lisers, multi-cropping to retain soil fertility, agroforestry, considering domestic Smaller farms have been found to be animals as members of the farming household, aquaculture, sharing and 2-10 times more productive per hec- preserving seeds at the community level, and conserving water resources tare in total output than larger farms, Outcomes: in both industrialised and developing countries (Rossett 1999) Large farms • More than 65,000 families all over Bangladesh are now engaged in this tend to be extensive monocultures in system which the vacant spaces between crop • Production costs have decreased rows are inviting to weeds, which are • Cash incomes have increased 50-200 per cent then usually managed by herbicides On • Increased fish and uncultivated crops have improved nutrition and food small farms these potentially vacant security spaces are characteristically filled with • Mixed cropping has been found to be 3 times more productive than other useful species – – monocropping • Farmers can now meet their subsistence needs from their own crops 10 The rural population is 60 per cent of • Livestock production has increased by 100-200 per cent the total population in Asia, with that figure rising to 65 per cent for Pakistan, • Families are a lot healthier and have less skin problems 71 per cent for India and 75 percent for Bangladesh - in contrast with Europe’s Source: ESCAP 2002; Mazhar et al 2003 27 per cent, USA’s 19 per cent and New Zealand’s 14 per cent (ESA 2005) PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 19

of agricul- A 15 year study of maize/soybean Box 12 tural production On the agroecosystems at the Rodale Institute small farm, productive in the USA found that organic tech- Case study: Organic activities, labor mobili- niques improved the soil’s ability to jasmine rice and baby corn zation, consumption absorb and retain moisture, and that production in Thailand patterns, ecological during one of the worst droughts on knowledge and common record the organic soybeans yielded 30 Two studies of organic production projects in interests in long-term bushels/acre whilst the chemically Thailand show decreased input costs and maintenance of the farm grown beans provided only 16 bush- greater returns for farmers without reducing as a resource, contribute els/acre (Peterson et al 1999) yields, and even with increased yields in the to a stable and lasting 6-1-3 Biodiversity case of baby corn, in both cases turning finan- economic and family- cial losses into profits based enterprise Work Encouraging biodiversity in the Jasmine rice quality, management, agroecosystem is a key ingredient of in- Farming costs (THB/rai) Conventional Organic knowledge and relation- creasing production and managing Fertilisers 220 150 ships are intertwined pests, weeds, and diseases without us- Pesticides 12 0 and mutually reinforc- ing pesticides It is a key strategy in self-labour 780 960 ing Short-term gain at many of the successful farming systems yield (kg/rai) 350 350 the risk of degrading es- reviewed here There are many impor- price 7 10 sential resources not tant aspects to biodiversity, only some net profit -185 767 only invites community of which are mentioned below One of sanction, but also places the most important is that of increasing Baby corn the family and the farm the diversity of productive outputs and Farming costs (THB/rai) Conventional Organic at risk of collapse” the total farm productivity, as will be Fertilisers 845 500 Rossett 1999 discussed in more detail in section 62 Pesticides 68 0 self-labour 3,000 3,360 Genuine land reform Other aspects of biodiversity relate yield (kg/rai) 150 173 offers to improve produc- to the functioning of the agroecosystem: price 20 30 tivity and food security i Mixed plant species increasing yield net profit -1,733 2,243 together with community through complementary relationships Source: ESCAP 2002 empowerment and social • A study by Tilman et al (2001) com- cohesion, something pes- paring a number of plots of differ- ticides cannot achieve ent plant species including grasses, perhaps also with animals rotated over 6-1-2 Conserving the soil and legumes, flowering herbs and the same ground Thus the total output restoring its fertility woody species, found that the is the sum of everything a small farmer mixed species plots produced 39 Conservation practices reduce ero- produces: various grains, fruits, vegeta- per cent greater above-ground sion, improve soil physical structure, bles, fodder, animal products, etc Land biomass and 42 per cent greater and improve water-holding capacity reform, in which large tracts of land held total biomass than single species and nutrient balances Restoring fertil- by landlords or corporate interests and plots after five years The positive ity requires using nitrogen fixing plants, farmed extensively or in monocultural effects of the biodiversity were in- adding animal manures, and plantations are returned to smallholder creasing over time Discernible com- other organic matter back into the soil farming families, may provide a much plementary relationships among greater boost to productivity than pes- Planting mucuna beans, for example, specific species and functional ticide use could ever achieve The sus- has transformed poor soils in Latin groups appeared to contribute to tainable agriculture projects reported on America Mucuna produces as much as this increase in productivity, as well by Pretty & Hine (2001), and summa- 100 tonnes of organic material per hec- as to a reduction in weed invasion rised below in section 62, averaged < tare, fixes nitrogen from the atmos- ii Mixed crop varieties reducing 2 hectares per farmer phere, and creates rich, friable soils in disease incidence just a few years Subsequent crop yields Small farms also are often the cen- • In Yunnan, China, farmers in ten have been found to double or even tre- tres of innovation, with successful tech- townships on 5,350 hectares ble (Pettifer 2001) niques spreading to larger farms, as switched from growing happened with the rice-fish and rice- The 150 year long Broadbalk Experi- monocultures of sticky rice to grow- IPM systems developed in Bangladesh ment at Rothamsted Experimental Sta- ing alternate rows of sticky rice and (Pretty & Hine 2001) tion in the UK, comparing plots that hybrid rice The sticky rice fetches are organically fertilised with those that a higher price but is susceptible to Of course, land reform has far are chemically fertilised, has shown that rice blast In the first year of the greater benefits than just increase in the soil organic matter and nitrogen experiment the rice blast was re- productivity: levels in the organic plots have in- duced by 94 per cent and yields “In traditional farming communities creased by 120 per cent, whilst those increased by 89 per cent Fungicides the family farm is central to main- of the chemical plot have increased previously applied eight times a taining community and to the only 20 per cent (Jenkinson et al 1994) season were no longer required and 20 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

it was found that the more farmers 1995 to promote non-chemical snail that attack rice, and they eat joined the project and the larger the means of pest-control relies prima- weed seeds and seedlings When area involved the more effective the rily on natural enemies and on the they use their feet to dig up the technique became The hybrid va- ability of the rice plant to compen- weeds they aerate the water and riety acted as a kind of firewall be- sate for insect damage Yields are provide mechanical stimulation tween the disease prone blocks consistently higher and net income that causes the rice stalks to Gross income per hectare increased has risen by 56 per cent (Barzman strengthen The duck-rice system by 15 per cent, even without in- & Das 2000) has been adopted by 10,000 farm- cluding the saving on fungicides iv Using weeds to control ers in Japan, and by others in South (Stoll 2000; Pretty & Hines 2001) weeds and insects Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and iii Predator and parasitic insects • In East Africa maize and sorghum Malaysia Yields are reported to controlling pest insects face two major pests: stem borer have increased 20-50 per cent in • Farmers in Vietnam use weaver and Striga, a parasitic plant The the first year (Ho 1999) ants to control pests on citrus In field margins are planted with a trials over two years, the ants re- local weed, Napier grass, the odour 6-1-4 Traditional indigenous duced infestation of citrus stinkbug of which attracts stem borer away knowledge, seed conservation, by 94 per cent, of swallowtail but- from the crop (Pearce 2001) The and participatory technology terfly larvae by 92 per cent, of cit- grass produces a sticky substance development rus aphid by 67 per cent and that kills the stem borer larvae The An essential ingredient in improving leafminer damage by 12 per cent crops are interplanted with two leg- food security through sustainable agri- As a bonus they also produced umes to fix nitrogen, and also with culture is recognising the value of tradi- shinier fruit with greater consumer molasses grass, Desmodium unci- tional indigenous knowledge, together appeal (Stoll 2000) natum, which repels both stem with conserving traditional varieties of borer and Striga Crop losses are • Research on 18 commercial Cali- seeds through farmer-based evaluation reported to have been reversed by fornian tomato operations showed and local seed banks (Ho & Ching removing pesticides from the sys- that there was no difference in pest 2003) Numerous case studies from In- tem (Ho & Ching 2003) damage between organic and dia, Brazil, Iran, Thailand and Uganda conventional operations Arthro- v Multi-tasking ducks: insect and weed show the benefit of traditional knowl- pod biodiversity was one-third control, plus diversity of output edge, innovation and agroecological greater on the organic farms, indi- • A Japanese organic farmer devel- approaches, which have brought many cating that beneficial species were oped a rice growing system that benefits including increased productiv- keeping the pests under control utilises weeds and pests as re- ity and economic benefits and enhanced (Letoumeau & Goldstein 2001) sources for raising ducks The ducks social relationships within communities • In Bangladesh, a project begun in eat the insect pests and golden (Scialabba & Hattam 2002) Farmers in 80 villages across Tamil Nadu were able to reverse the land Box 13 degradation and poverty that had re- Case study: the Maikal Bio-Cotton sulted from a shift away from tradi- Project in Madyha Pradesh, India tional farming to a high external input/ cash crop system They achieved this In 1992 an organic cotton-growing project was set up as a response to reversal by incorporating traditional severe pest problems despite repeated pesticide application Whitefly had knowledge with innovative agroeco- developed resistance to pesticides, and farmers returns were declining Lo- logical techniques cally prepared biodynamic preparations and a range of organic techniques, “Pests and their natural predators such as trap and host crops, and compost making, replaced the chemical are closely observed in the field and inputs Seven years later, more than one thousand farmers had joined the a balance maintained between them scheme, cultivating more than 6,000 hectares Organic cotton, grown on to control pests Other methods in- around half this area, is rotated with a wide range of other crops clude growing repellent crops, trap Results after seven years: crops, and inter-crops, and the use • average cotton yield 20% higher than on neighbouring conventional farms; of light traps (to attract and trap • up to 20% higher yields of other rotational crops – wheat, soya, chilli; pests), bird perches, herbal decoc- • 30% higher yields for sugar cane and a higher price for the cane because tion sprays (including neem oil of a higher sugar content; sprays) and bio-control techniques (use of parasites) Natural plant • pest incidence reduced to a minimum; growth promoters are also devel- • labour requirements substantially reduced; oped and used (for example, cow’s • production costs 3-40% less than for pesticide-dependent cotton crops; urine, vermi-wash, panchakavya and • significantly higher farmer margins tender coconut water for rice) Source: Parrott & Marsden 2001; ESCAP 2002 In all these, the farmers identify their own problems and try to find PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 21

Table 6: Some successful traditional and innovative methods in Low through the farmer field schools in rice External Input and project in Tamil Nadu production, Vietnamese farmers cut the Problem Method number of sprays from 34 to 1 per Ear head bug Bugs collected, crushed, mixed with water & season, and in Sri Lanka the reduction sprayed on crop was from 29 to 05 Spray pepper water Many also cut pesticide use completely: Spray garlic water Broadcast dry fish powder • In Bangladesh, 80 per cent of the Blast disease 150gm asafoetida and ginger made into a juice, 150,000 farmers using IPM no longer diluted in 9 litres water and sprayed use any pesticides and rice yields Field cracking Stamping the field after irrigation have not fallen Dissolve cow dung in irrigation channel • Forty per cent of farmers in the Water scarcity Spread human hair and plough it into soil in Mekong Delta in Vietnam no longer preparing a nursery plot for water retention Broadcast azospirillum (bacteria) and tea dust use any pesticides on rice Seepage of water Form a bund with red soil, plaster it and plant • India’s National IPM programme has with Cynodan tactylon brought a 50 per cent reduction in Aphids - cotton Sheep dung and ash mixed together and sprinkled pesticide use with rice yields in- Stem rot disease - chilli 1kg Albizziaamara leaves, pounded & soaked in creased by 250kg/ha 2 litres of fermented butter milk for 10 days • In Indonesia the National IPM Pro- Green larva and pod borer - cow pea Garlic, ginger, green chilli, and khadi soap decoction sprayed gramme in rice reduced pesticide use Trips - paddy nursery Broadcast wood ash on average from 29 to 11 applica- Bollworm - cotton Intercrop with castor, sunflower, marigolds tions per season, and by 1999 one Light traps quarter of all farmers had stopped Pheromone traps using them altogether At the same Release of green lace wing time rice yields increased by 05 Release of Trichogramma chilonis parasite tonnes/ha on average Source: Chanakya et al 2003 • In the Philippines the IPM pro- gramme for vegetables in the High- their own solutions In this process multiple crops and from cash crops lands brought an 80 per cent several new techniques have been to food crops reduction in pesticide use in the wet developed by the farmers them- Because of the decrease in the use season (55 per cent in the dry sea- selves The participatory technology of external inputs and the conse- son), with a 20 per cent increase in development process has become a quent reduction in expense, the vegetable yields In parts of the Phil- vehicle for resource, skill and knowl- farmers are also being liberated from ippines 75 per cent of farmers no edge enhancement with minimum the debt trap and loan sharks   longer use pesticides on vegetables risk to these resource-poor farmers Value addition to agricultural prod- (Pretty & Hine 2001) It has also increased their confi- ucts further helps generate addi- dence Though the process has Significant increases in household food tional income and provide better production were also reported: largely addressed crop protection employment opportunities, particu- • For 42 million farmers on an aver- and fertility management, it also larly for the landless   Because of age of 08 hectares, production per extends to socio-economic aspects this greater employment, there is less household increased by 74 per cent As a result of all these practices, migration now, leading to the im- externally purchased inputs have provement of the village economy” • For 146,000 farmers on an average of 37 hectares, production increased been reduced by 50-90 per cent Chanakya et al 2003 among these farmer groups espe- by 150 per cent cially inputs for plant protection This 62 The Evidence • For larger farms in Latin America has brought down the cost of pro- (>90 hectares) production increased duction (offering, for instance, a bet- In 2001 Jules Pretty and Rachel Hine by 46 per cent published the results of an extensive ter cost-benefit ratio of 1:18 in rice The increased food production came survey of sustainable agricultural farming with the new low external in part from increased yields, eg in- projects in 52 countries These projects input and sustainable agriculture creases typically of 50-100 per cent, involved 898 million farmers on 2892 compared to 1:14 in conventional even up to 200 per cent in cereal pro- million hectares: 3 per cent of the ar- farming with chemicals) Besides, the duction It also came from increased able and permanent crops in Africa, land is now healthier with greater diversity through improved use of Asia and Latin America Of the 208 moisture-holding capacity, and pest microenvironments - such as fish, shrimp projects, 23 were in India, 8 in China, resistance and the food is poison- and crabs in rice fields and 7 in the Philippines, 4 in Bangladesh, free As small and minor millets are ponds, vegetables on rice bunds and with others in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Paki- resistant to drought and pest, the in kitchen gardens, multi-layer tree gar- stan and Vietnam farmers have started cultivating more dens with root crops at ground level of these crops for food security at Many of these projects achieved very Eighty-eight per cent of the projects the family and the village level large reductions in pesticide use: for made better use of locally-available There is a shift from mono-crop to example with the adoption of IPM resources 22 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Social consequences As a direct result of the increased to- Box 14 tal farm productivity domestic con- Farmers Field Schools in Indonesia sumption of food increased Pretty & Hine (2001) found that women and In response to farmers’ loss of control over agricultural resources, the particularly children were frequently the impact of pesticides on health and environment and the marginalisation of main beneficiaries of the increased food women farmers as a result of the Green Revolution and trade liberalisation, production Children had better oppor- Gita Pertiwi, an NGO in Central , organised an IPM training programme tunities to attend school They found for farmers in 1992 The programme, using farmer field schools in which that migration reversals occurred – in farmers learn directly from experience, has benefited over 8,000 farmers It India (Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil has substantially reduced, and in many cases eliminated the use of pesti- Nadu), seasonal migration from rainfed cides, improved farmers knowledge, skills and self-reliance, increased crop projects declined as better water man- yields, lowered cost of production agement meant water was available for Source: Dewi 2003 cropping during the dry season, women particularly benefiting from being able to remain at home all year of the most significant models for so- synergistic interaction between the fish In China (Jiangsu Province), there has cial learning to emerging in the last 15 and vegetable cultivation Social cohe- been a measured reduction in malaria years Ninety-two per cent of the sion developed through farmers’ groups where a rice aquaculture system has projects provide improved human has led to better sharing of water re- been developed with larvae-eating fish ‘capital’ through various learning pro- sources especially in times of scarcity added to the rice fields For example, grammes (Pretty & Hine 2001) In Bangladesh, 80 per cent of the in Quanzhou County, the incidence of 6-2-1 Summary of evidence farmer field school participants no malaria fell from 116 cases per for sustainable agriculture longer use any pesticides Their rice- 100,000 people to only 01 cases as by growing system fish-vegetable systems bring in an ad- the area of rice-fish cultivation grew ditional income of US$250/ha, and as from zero to 43 per cent of the area Wetland Rice systems a result all the participating households over a ten-year period The rice yields Eighty one per cent of the global rice are now food secure throughout the have also increased by 10-15 per cent production occurs in Asia, some 484 mil- year (Pretty & Hine 2001) and 50kg of fish can be produced an- lion tonnes in 1999 (Pretty & Hine 2001) nually per mu (one fifteenth of a hec- In Sri Lanka, a national integrated pest tare) The use of agricultural chemicals Farmer field schools using an agri-eco- and crop management programme has is greatly reduced (Pretty & Hine 2001) logical IPM system have brought sharp brought substantial reductions in pesti- reductions in pesticide use together with cide use – from 29 to 05 applications Korean researchers have also found small increases in rice productivity Fish, per season – with increases in rice yields that avoiding pesticides in paddy fields crabs and prawns introduced into the up to 50 per cent, and of vegetables up encourages the muddy loach fish, which fields to improve nutrient recycling and to 44 per cent (Pretty & Hine 2001) predate mosquito larvae, effectively improve disease control have increased controlling the spread of malaria and If increased production of the main protein production, increasing total sys- Japanese encephalitis (Bonner 2002) crop is the only goal, this can be tem productivity So have the vegetables achieved through changes to manage- Farmer field schools have been one cultivated on the rice field dykes, with a ment techniques rather than the use of pesticides For example, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) developed first Table 7: Sustainable wetland rice production in Madagascar has achieved yield in- Country No of Farmers Hectares Productivity creases from the usual 2-3 tons per hec- Sri Lanka 55,000 33,000 rice yields up 30-50% Vietnam 108,000 162,000 rice yields up 9% tare to typically 8 tonnes, even up to Indonesia 1,000,000 500,000 rice yields up 5-10% 15 tonnes per hectare on soils that were Madagascar 20,000 rice yields up from 2 to 6-11 tonnes/ha nutrient deficient and acidic This was Bangladesh 150,000 90,000 rice yields up 7-9% achieved without recourse to purchased China - Jiangsu 103,000 70,000 rice yields up 10-15%,plus fish, crab, pesticides and fertilisers The methods shrimp used include transplanting rice seedlings Source: Pretty & Hine 2001 after 15 days instead of 30 days; plant- ing single seedlings instead of groups Table 8: Sustainable rainfed rice and maize production of 3 or 4; spacing plants more widely Country No of farmers Hectares Productivity apart at densities of 15-20 per square China, Yunnan 150 300 maize up 33-250% metre instead of the usual 100; peri- India 4,000 5,000 rice up 180% (wet season), 87% (dry) odic drying of the fields which encour- Nepal 3,000 1,300 rice up 240% ages growth; more frequent weeding 580 350 rice up 50%, maize up 33% which increases root aeration; and use Philippines 277 206 maize up 15-25% 450 520 rice up 113%, maize up 227% of manures and composts (Parrott & Marsden 2002; Ho, Ching et al 2003) Source: Pretty & Hine 2001 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 23

Rainfed rice and maize the land is now producing 500kg/ha covers, tree planting to shade and sta- Changes to the rainfed maize, wheat (Pretty & Hine 2001) bilise the hilly land, and promotion of and rice agroecosystems have brought ecological diversity to improve pest con- Home gardens and trol Initially a 17 per cent reduction in significant increases in yields These microenvironments changes include: tea yields was experienced but the so- These are seldom paid attention by cial benefits have been significant – in- • incorporation of legumes into rota- agribusiness in its drive for control of cluding increased milk yields that have tions as cover crops and/or as green the cash crop economy, for the food improved the workers’ diets The preva- manures, or as a weed suppressant; produced is mostly for home consump- lence of respiratory disease has also • agroforestry with maize/rice for soil tion or local sales That is why they are dropped with the abandonment of pes- nitrogen-fixing and phosphate-re- of central importance in ensuring that ticide use (Parrott & Marsden 2002) leasing; food insecure people receive adequate • biological control of pests, including nutrition from a diversity of foods In 7 Conclusion semiochemicals released by some Indonesia, the garden area (pekarangan) grasses that push-pull predators, can contain up to 250 species of useful ost countries remain locked in a parasites and pests; plants, with productivity per square Mpesticide culture, a culture of • watershed and catchment manage- metre higher than for field crops (Pretty chemical addiction, and denial: denial ment programmes & Hine 2001) Significant increases in of adverse effects and denial of a dif- productivity can be gained with ferent and better way, one that pro- Wheat and maize biointensive , including dou- vides profits and good health to the intensive rotations ble-dug beds for year round fruit and people who grow food rather than to Of the 583 million tonnes of wheat vegetable production, fish ponds in the purveyors of poisons produced worldwide in 1999, 20 per gardens, the addition of 1 or 2 units of It is not pesticides that will feed the cent was produced in China on 31 mil- livestock (cow, chicken pig, goat), and world; it is community-centred, lion hectares, and 11 per cent in India development of microenvironments biodiversity-based sustainable agricul- (on 24 m ha) Kazakhstan (13m ha) and that might otherwise be uncultivated ture The use of agroecological prac- Pakistan (8m ha) are also significant such as silt traps Importantly, too, it is tices instead of pesticides has been producers Improvements in yield came the most food insecure members of a repeatedly found to increase food sup- with adoption of cover crops, and green family – women and children – who plies, increase food access, reduce mal- manures, and with farmer participatory benefit most from these efforts nutrition, increase incomes, and breeding in India and Nepal In the There are also examples where less improve the livelihoods of the poor Hebei Province of China, water use has pesticide use has resulted in a decreased [Uphoff & Altieri 1999] These prac- been reduced by 30 per cent, fertiliser yield of the cash crop but an increase tices can provide year-round self-suffi- use by 20 per cent, with a net improve- yield of food for the workers This oc- ciency where high input systems do ment in returns of 30 per cent In East curred in the Ambootia tea estate in not They lead to more stable levels of Gansu, rainfall collection techniques, Darjeeling, India This 350 acre tea gar- total production per unit area than high water conservation, animal manures den in the foothills of the Himalayas, input systems, at the same time ensur- have contributed to significant in- in common with most other tea estates, ing soil protection and enhanced creases in yields, decreased pesticide faced declining yields of tea as a result biodiversity Additionally these yields and fertiliser use, greater availability of of over- that caused are under the control of the farmers drinking water the depletion of soil fertility and de- and communities that produce them, Arid and semi-arid creased resistance to disease A biody- meaning that the people get fed millet and sorghum namic management system was Feeding the world is about far more introduced, involving locally made Millet and sorghum are vital staple than just increasing production It is compost, doubling of the dairy herd to foods in dryland India and China where about ensuring food security and access provide manure, leguminous ground 16 million and 8 million tonnes, respec- to food It requires food sovereignty tively, were grown in 1999 Farmers growing these crops are very poor and Table 9: Wheat and maize rotations input use is low Improvements in yields Country No of Farmers Hectares Productivity have been brought about by using wa- China - East Gansu 100,000 70,000 maize up 38%, wheat up 40% ter harvesting techniques that have ei- - Hebei Plain 224,000 100,000 wheat up 17%; maize up 9% ther increased yields on existing land Pakistan 690 1,000 wheat up 10-25% or brought previously unproductive Source: Pretty & Hine 2001 land into production; and by use of animal manures, compost, rock phos- Table 10: Sustainable home gardens and microenvironments phate and soil conservation measures In India yields have risen from 200-400 Country No of Farmers Hectares Productivity Bangladesh 60,000 11,000 veg up 39% kg/ha to 700-900 kg/ha in the wet sea- India 338380milk up 60% son, and from 1200 to 2000kg/ah in Pakistan 5,000 3,500 & citrus up 150-200% the dry season In some places the dry Philippines 1,720 1,720 cabbage up 21% season crop was not grown before, but Source: Pretty & Hine 2001 24 PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Farmers must have control of their own of measuring the production benefits national and international powers for agrisystems instead of being enslaved of an agricultural system Sustainable their own ends, to ensure regulations to money lenders and TNCs This can agriculture honours the knowledge of suit their needs, or to at least minimise be achieved by an agricultural system traditional agriculture, and the wisdom the effects on their profits - irrespec- that relies on local inputs rather than of women farmers and seed-keepers tive of the havoc they wreck on com- expensive agrochemicals that fail at cru- Pesticides, on the other hand, have munities throughout Asia cial times It is achieved by fostering brought ill-health and suffering, star- Only by facing up to the devastating agri-biodiversity that is more resistant vation and suicide They have bought effects that pesticides have wrought on to the vagaries of nature and the har- disrupted communities, broken families people and the environment can we vest of which is less likely to fail com- and poisoned environments to places truly understand the urgent need to pletely A broader range of crops with like Kamukhaan and Kasargod shift agriculture away from its chemi- mixed intercropping, a range of species cal dependence and move it towards a and more varieties of the same species Pesticides are developed and distrib- sustainable future, one that embraces give the best insurance against starva- uted not to feed the world but to feed agroecological practices and traditional tion Single crop productivity should not the greed, for ever more profit, of ra- knowledge, the rights of farmers and be the judge of agricultural productiv- pacious chemical corporations caught especially of women farmers Only then ity, nor of whether or not the world can up in the growth cycle These compa- can the world achieve its promise of be fed The health of farmers, families nies exploit cynical marketing tech- food security and sovereignty for all and community is an equally vital part niques and cosy relationships with

Poison free fish-rice cultivation in Comilla, Bangladesh

Trees form the basis for top soil preservation and water harvesting systems on the Kollangi (LEISA) farm

More farmhouses are shifting to organic methods in the Paldang Watershed in Korea

As a lifeline of the farming community, the women of Vegetable gardens form an integral part of the food and Nayakrishi have started to build their own seed wealth centres nutrition security among women farmers and saves to conserve, propagate and germinate seeds significant levels of cash needs Photo: LEISA PAN AP POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 25

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