Pesticides Residues: A killer from agricultural product

My secondary school days was a beautiful and experienced one in a village called Eko-ende in Ifelodun Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria.There was a farmer called Baba Tijani , who was a father of six children. One of them called Kunle was my friend, the man had about ten acres of land where he practise the crop farming. Their farm used to have highest farm product every year .My friend (Kunle) is the richest student in our school and he used to buy things for us. The beautiful ladies in the school will be running after him because of the money and food he gives them. One day Kunle brought about three baskets of yam to the school and he distributed all to the teachers including the principal. Kunle used to have all his papers because of the gifts given to the teachers.

Maize
During our senior secondary certificate examination, Kunle was the only student that have ‘A’s in all his subjects, because of the gifts he gave the supervisor and teachers which made them to help him.
After five years of our graduation from secondary school, I saw Kunle in a bad condition and I asked him what happened. He said their farm was attacked by pests and their farm product has reduced drastically which cannot meet up their daily need. He said even they have been selling their properties to meet up at times. I introduce him to a man who is a retired teacher and also a farmer so because of his level of literacy he knows how pest can be controlled. Kunle stayed with the man for few days and ran away, he thought he has understood all about the application of the pesticides. He doesn’t know that it has measurement and side effects. Some months later their farm product increased because the pest has been controlled. Kunle continued with the use of pesticides not knowing the repercussion of pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables. After some time, people who used to buy their farm product started complaining of headaches and nausea which lead to government investigation on their farm land. The government official discovered that their farm product contain high level of pesticides residues which lead to different health problems. The government banned them from using their land for farming for the next thirty years due to long term persistence in the environment, especially agricultural soil.

WHAT IS PESTICIDES
Pesticides are chemicals which are component of modern farming, playing an active role in getting more agricultural productivity. Majority of the farmers has made up their mind to be using pesticides to control pests. However, pesticide is not easy to sustain because of accumulation adverse effects on the flora, furna, soil, water, air, animal, human being, and environment. Pesticides residues are present in all eco-system agricultural product, but the health hazards is from the exposure of human being to primary and derived products. Various human health issues associated to pesticides residues effects are (i) short term impact such as headaches and nausea and (ii) long term impact such as cancer, birth defect, infertility and endocrine disruption.

Pesticide spraying

Summary
In order to ensure safety food for the consumers and protect human health, maximum residue limits for pesticides in fruits and vegetables must not exceeded. The farmers should be educated to know how and when to use pesticides on their farm land, so that the pesticides residues will not exceed the limit.

Refrence
Ref 1