Officials from ASARECA during the training
By Prisca Wanyenya
A team of experts in the agriculture sector has warned farmers against abusing agriculture technologies during production, arguing that this has contributed to the increase in cases of non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure within the population.
The warning was issued by Robert Guloba, Agroecologist during the Training of Trainers in Integrated Pest and Disease Management
Practices and Agroecology, organised by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), held at Hilton Garden Inn, in Kampala, on 14th July 2025.
“When we talk about the misuse of the technologies in the conventional farming, one, we look at the dosage. When these manufacturers manufacture the chemicals, either fertiliser, fungicides or pesticides or herbicides, there is a specific dose. For example, they can say you mix maybe 20 mils of the chemical in 20 litres of water. But most of the times, when a farmer gets this, for them they think that the more the chemical, the better it will work, so by doing so, the side effects are many. So the dosage that they are using, they don’t follow the instructions on dosage,” explained Guloba.
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 600 million, almost 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year. The global health body also revealed in October 2024 that US$ 110 billion is lost each year in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low- and middle-income countries.
World Health Organisation also revealed that children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year, and further highlighted that foodborne diseases impede socioeconomic development by straining health care systems and harming national economies, tourism, and trade.
The other warning issued on abuse of agriculture technologies is about recycling of packaging materials used for chemicals and pesticides, where some farmers after using the content of the products, they divert the containers for home use.
Guloba explained, “You find that most farmers, after applying the chemical, some even just wash the bottle and they use it for keeping salt, sugar. For those who take water, they will use those same bottles for carrying their water, that is a misuse because at the end of the day, even though the toxicity is small because you have diluted the chemical, but as it keeps accumulating in the body, it will cause lethal damage. After applying the chemicals, they just throw the bottles anywhere which go with running water and end up in water sources.”
He also noted that the other form in which agriculture technologies are being abused is through the way chemicals are applied during production, in which the farmers disregard the guidelines given by the manufactures on the need to put on protective gears while spraying the chemicals or even ignoring warning on not applying the chemicals in hot weather.
Guloba noted, “The manufacturer says put on protective gears, for example, cover yourself, the entire body, before you apply the chemical. Then also, the manufacturer will tell you, do not apply the chemical during hot days because when it is hot, the skin pores are open, so any spill of the chemical from the spraying equipment onto your skin, the chemical will go directly enter your skin. The farmers don’t follow this. You will find the farmer spraying the chemical in a broad day heat, when they are even sweating. And the skin is exposed to the chemical and so the chemical is going directly to the skin.”
He also called on farmers to follow the instructions provided by the manufactures of these chemicals especially guidelines on monitoring the direction of the wind, arguing that when the chemicals are sprayed in the opposite direction of the wind, there are incidences where the wind will blow bank, and the farmers might end up inhaling the chemicals.
Guloba also urged farmers to follow instructions on the window period between the time plants and grown and later harvested where he explained, “These chemicals, once they are applied, they have a window period that after maybe 10 days or 15 days or one week, is when you are able to consume the crop. But in Uganda, most farmers will apply the chemical now and harvest the produce immediately. And to make matters worse, even for the tomatoes, you find that they even add these chemicals on tomatoes, just to increase their shelf life. So that’s a misuse.”
The 2019 World Bank report on the economic burden of foodborne diseases indicated that the total productivity loss associated with foodborne disease in low- and middle-income countries was estimated at US$ 95.2 billion per year, and the annual cost of treating foodborne illnesses is estimated at US$15 billion.
