ABSTRACT
Pesticide use in Africa is the lowest of all the continents, accounting for only 2 per cent of world sales, and averaging in the 1990s 1.23 kg ha-1 compared with 7.17 kg in Latin America and 3.12 in Asia (Repetto and Baliga, 1996; Agrow, 2001). This low use appears to suggest correspondingly low health and environmental hazards, and indeed that African agriculture may need to increase its pesticide use (Paarlberg, 2002). Regrettably, this assumption is wrong, as African farmers currently use many WHO Class Ia and Ib products, and few users take precautionary measures to prevent harm (Gerken et al, 2000; Hanshi, 2001; Matthews et al, 2003).
