Use of weed killer by peasant farmers: how safe are we?

“The rate at which weed killer is being used is alarming! My worry is that there is little or no sensitization at all on its application.

I have seen many beginning to use it including peasant farmers not excluding use in backyard gardens.

Should this be a source of worry or not?

Someone to shade more light on this topic please.” - Kenneth Abrahams

“Glad to see so many people questioning the decision to use herbicide or not...Each farming family will have their own context, how they want their lives to be, how their land must look in future to continue producing for the generations that follow us...10, 100, 1000 years from today...God has stopped making land, we need to leave the land we farm in better condition than it is now or our children could starve!

So it’s critical we consider all the social, economic and environmental factors both short and long term when we make any decisions. We at Grassroots Trust use and promote the Holistic Management framework to plan and help us make more consistent decisions towards the life we want and the result is less unintended consequences.

Some here say it's worth using poisons even if it sacrifices long term soil/environmental health for short term benefits because problems can be fixed later with more chemicals... This thinking has been Zambia's national policy for over 50 years, the result has been a catastrophic collapse in productivity and profitability for the vast majority of farmers, millions of whom have been forced to migrate to cities or other regions as the land desertifies...The consequences of poor management of environment are many but broken water cycle is the one most clearly effecting everyone with the whole of industry and mining now suffering from load shedding, floods and droughts, boreholes drying and increasing conflict over resources in general.

I urge everyone to consider this post deeply, our individual actions effects everyone...” - Rolf Shenton

“It begins with each individual realizing the collective responsibility towards the wellbeing of mother earth rests on our heads. Our individual actions accumulate into collective damage or remedy. Earth depends on us. We also depend on earth.” - Solomon Mwale

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Zambia Agribusiness Society

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