Hidden health costs of pesticide use in Zimbabwe's smallholder cotton growers
Abstract
Balancing the numerous benefits that may accrue from pesticide use on cotton, farmers face health hazards. Pesticide-induced acute symptoms significantly increased the cost-of-illness in a survey of 280 smallholder cotton growers in two districts of Zimbabwe. Cotton growers lost a mean of Z$180 in Sanyati and Z$316 per year in Chipinge on pesticide-related direct and indirect acute health effects. These values are equivalent to 45% and 83% of annual household pesticide expenditures in the two districts. The time spent recuperating from illnesses attributed to pesticides averaged 2 days in Sanyati and 4 days in Chipinge during the 1998/1999 growing season. These pesticide health cost estimates represent lower bounds only; they omit chronic pesticide health effects as well as suffering and other non-monetary costs. Acute pesticide symptoms were determined in large part by pesticide use practices, notably the lack of protective clothing. Yet many smallholder farmers misunderstood pesticide health hazards, and so did little to protect themselves. Despite the use of simple color codes, 22% of smallholder cotton growers in Sanyati and 58% in Chipinge did not know how the four colored triangles communicated increasing degrees of pesticide toxicity. Better farmer education in exposure averting strategies is needed. Likewise, fuller accounting for hidden health costs in future would allow farmers to make more informed decisions about agricultural pest management.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Social Science & Medicine.
Volume (Year): 57 (2003)
Issue (Month): 9 (November)
Pages: 1559-1571
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Related research
Keywords: Pesticide Occupational health Cost-of-illness Agriculture Cotton Zimbabwe;References
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Gillson, I & Poulton, Colin & Balcombe, Kelvin & Page, S, 2004. "Understanding the impact of Cotton Subsidies on developing countries," MPRA Paper 15373, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Clevo Wilson, 2005.
"Exposure to pesticides, ill-health and averting behaviour: Costs and determining the relationships,"
School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series
197, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
- Clevo Wilson, 2005. "Exposure to pesticides, ill-health and averting behaviour: costs and determining the relationships," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 32(12), pages 1020-1034, December.
- Kouser, Shahzad & Qaim, Matin, 2011. "Impact of Bt cotton on pesticide poisoning in smallholder agriculture: A panel data analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2105-2113, September.
- Eicher, Carl K. & Maredia, Karim & Sithole-Niang, Idah, 2005. "Biotechnology and the African Farmer," Staff Papers 11495, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
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