Pesticides contamination and exposure reduction
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Lebanon suffers from land erosion and soil degradation (e.g. alkalinity, salinity, and moisture deficit), with 39 percent of the Lebanese territory highly exposed to land degradation (UNCCD 2018). Soil nutrition and plant protection are mismanaged with Lebanon showing some of the highest per hectare use of fertilizers (331 kg/ha) and pesticides (7 kg/ha) in the world (FAOSTAT 2020; MoA 2020). Chemical pesticides control plant pests and therefore reduce yield losses; however, this comes at a heavy cost to the environment and to the animal and human health.
In Lebanon, The Phytopharmacy Department of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has registered hundreds of chemical pesticides. All legally registered pesticides have labels that identify the Trade Name, active ingredient(s), formulation type, the intended use, and the application interval and frequency.
In spite of this, most farmers seldom abide by the recommended usage frequency and dosage, and often double the recommended rate thinking that they are “guaranteeing” the effectiveness of the pesticide as they say. Furthermore, in many instances, sales engineers actually advise farmers to spray more than one pesticide of the same class or possessing similar mode of action, leading to an ineffective overuse.