Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3.2 Background on pesticide use and environmental monitoring
in Kenya
Joseph O. Lalah
1
and Peter O. Otieno
2, 3
1
Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology, School of Applied Sciences
and Technology Kenya Polytechnic University College, P.O. Box 52428-00200
City Square Nairobi
Institute of Ecological Chemistry, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter
Landstraße 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany
2
Department of Chemistry, Maseno University, P.O Box 333, 40105, Maseno,
Kenya
3
3.2.1 Furadan use in rice farming: how carbofuran fi rst
gained entry into Kenya
On a global scale, carbofuran is most often used in rice cultivation (Meister and Sine 1999), and this
industry is very important in Kenya. According to the existing records, carbofuran was fi rst imported
into the country in the 1960s (as Furadan), mainly to control rice pests, although other uses such as
control of maize stock-borers in maize, sorghum and millet have also been reported (Lalah 1994;
Otieno 2009). Carbofuran has a lower LD
50
than other insecticides such as acephate, diazinon and
ethylan and hence is more effective for control of susceptible and moderately resistant rice cultivars
(Barrion and Litsinger 1994). Table 3.1 summarises the quantity of carbofuran imported into Kenya
between 1986 and 1992, because we were unable to fi nd any records regarding the quantity of car-
bofuran imported after that. We note that the available data show that elevated quantities of technical
carbofuran have been imported at a rate comparable to malathion, an organophosphorus insecti-
cide used worldwide in horticultural farming and grain storage (Lalah and Wandiga 1996c; PCPB
2006). When recently surveyed, farmers in Isiolo and Laikipia District stated that they considered
Furadan to be the best line of defence against insect pests (Otieno 2009, and see Section 3.6).
According to the records, carbofuran was primarily imported (as Furadan 5G) to control soil-dwell-
ing and foliar-feeding insects. The most recent PCPB reports (i.e., from 2006) indicate that Furadan
5G, 3G and 10G granules were marketed to control soil insects and nematodes and early foliar feeding
insects (see Table 3.2). These granular formulations were packed in 200 and 500 gram plastic bottles
and sold freely over the counter in most agrovet shops in Kenya. A liquid formulation (Furadan 350ST)
was also marketed as a seed dressing, mainly for barley seeds. However, we researched and provided
this written contribution in 2009/2010, and there have since been a number of signifi cant develop-
ments in the availability of Furadan and related products on the Kenyan market (see Section 3.4). As
a result, the information provided within this section should be regarded as confi rmed up until 2009,
since the current status and availability of Furadan in Kenya is largely speculative at this point.
The major irrigation schemes where Furadan was used in commercial rice farming, with the sup-
port of the National Irrigation Board of Kenya (NIB), were in Yala, Ahero, Mwea and Tana River. In
Ahero, Mwea and Tana River, the farms were either owned by NIB (which was involved in farm-
ing and marketing rice) or by the farmers themselves. In Yala, all farms were owned by individual
farmers rather than by NIB. We note that these schemes became inactive in the late 1990s but were
revived in 2009 following a call by the government for intensifi cation of irrigation agriculture, in
response to severe food shortages that followed long periods of drought. Unfortunately, recent infor-
mation regarding Furadan/carbofuran use in these schemes does not appear to be available.
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