TANZANIA Plant Health and Pesticides Authority (TPHPA) has banned the use of 44 highly hazardous pesticides with active ingredients that are harmful to human health as well as the environment.
In addition, the authority continues to conduct regular inspections of warehouses and pesticide storage facilities to detect the presence of other harmful pesticides.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Anthony Mavunde, said this in response to a basic question from Special Seats Legislator Asha Juma (CCM), who wanted to know when the government would complete a review to identify harmful pesticides still used in agriculture.
He said the government through TPHPA implements a procedure to identify pesticides and hazards that cause harm to crops, plants, and human and animal health.
“The procedure is done according to Article 54 of Law no. 4 of the Plant Health Act, 2020 which empowers the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides to ban the registration of pesticides that cause harm to human health and the environment,” he said.
Mr Mavunde went on to say that from 2018 to 2021, the government conducted a review to identify pesticides known as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) that have serious effects on human health and the environment. The review found 44 pesticides with active ingredients that are hazardous to human health and the environment.
Meanwhile, in response to another question in the ministry, Mr Mavunde stated that there was no shortage of fertiliser in the country during the agricultural season of 2022/2023.
Likewise, he said the government has not received any complaints from farmers and investors regarding losses due to a shortage of fertilizers.
In his basic question, Kisesa MP, Luhaga Mpina wanted to know what caused the fertiliser shortage that led to losses to farmers and investors in the country in the 2022/2023 season.
In response to the question, Mr Mavunde stated that the only issue that arose was the fact that farmers were more aware of the need to purchase fertiliser than the network of agents could handle. Nevertheless, the government continued to offer solutions and increased the number of agents from 1,392 in August 2022 to 3,265 in March 2023.
According to him, the estimated demand for fertilisers for the 2022/2023 season was 667,730 tonnes, and the overall amount of fertiliser supply until March 20, 2023, reached 748,890 tonnes, equal to 112 per cent of the country’s demand for fertilisers, compared to the same period for the 2021/2022 farming season.
