Tanzania to destroy 700 tonnes of expired pesticide next year

The government is set to use $5 million (about Sh7 billion) to dispose about 700 tonnes of obsolete pesticides.

These are pesticides that were accumulated by famers, distributors, municipalities after they legally became out of use (leftovers or after expiry date).
The exercise is facilitated by the CropLife Foundation under the programme called Africa Stockpiles Project (ASP).

"We have just completed an inventory of nearly 700 tonnes of the outdated pesticides, we are planning to carry the disposal sometimes next year," said Dr Rudolf Guyer, the executive president of CropLife Africa Middle East.

He was speaking at a two day regulatory workshop started yesterday in Dar es Salaam on obsolete pesticides and container management.

Similar project is being carried in several African countries such as Mali where an inventory for 1,000 tonnes of the outdated pesticides have been completed. Others are Tunisia with 1,250 tonnes and Ethiopia with 350 tonnes whose disposal is also already planned.

The money for carrying collection, transporting and the destruction costs is usually provided by national governments and World Bank through the project.

Under international conventions, obsolete pesticides are considered as harzadous waste that must be collected and safeguarded all the way to Europe for destruction.

"One of our primary functions is to train farmers on how best they should handle the pesticides before and after using the pesticides," said Dr Guyer.

He said that with an increasing number of emerging crop diseases where by using pesticide is becoming necessary; farmers should be educated on how they can use the pesticides accurately and more responsibly.