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Politics and Pesticides Resistant Managements in Iraq
Ibrahim
J.Al-Jboory PhD
University of Baghdad, College of Agriculture
Plant Protection Department, Baghdad
Pesticide use has increased tremendously out of precise pest's identification and economic threshold determination in Iraq in the last three years. The Iraqi farmers buy only the cheap, broad spectrum insecticides due to their exhausted economic situation. They use high dosages and repeat applications many times in order to get a certain level of pest control and besides that, they depend on either their own strive or advice from the uneducated people who work in agricultural shops.
Cypermethrin and Alpha-Cypermethrin have become the dominant insecticides used by the farmers in Iraq. The dealer or wholesaler imports over 500-1000 tons of these insecticides yearly from different cheap origins (India, China, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey ...etc) and they are very bad quality. These insecticides have been used to control plant and animal pests. The misuse of these two pyrethroid insecticides and others damage the agro-ecosystem completely by killing the biological control agents, (predators and parasites) and establishing resistant strains of crop pests and also cross resistant to another insecticides chemical group. The country of origin of these insecticides, lack of quality control measures, high level of impurities, solvents used (xylen mainly), besides the frequent application of these insecticides on daily consumed crops such as tomato, cucumber, pepper, potato and leafy vegetables encourage increasing cancer cases in the area where these insecticides have been used and this was mentioned by the MOH without referring to these insecticides. The misleading label information which are designed by the wholesalers and retailers, the pesticide mixtures prepared by retailers, in addition to cheating these pesticides either by transfering the contents of the cheap products to another container belonging to well-known companies or importing insecticides that are less concentrated than what is mentioned on the label are the main characteristics of the Iraqi pesticides market.
The farmers, consumers, and the operators are the victims of this kind of chaos and mess which we face daily in Iraq.
The case I mention above was only in the years after the falling of the ex-regime (after April 2003) and when our borders are opened to both legal and illegal materials introduction to Iraq (Hi bye borders).The National Committee For Pesticides Registration and Approval (NCFPRA) had very strict laws which controled import of any pesticides entering the country and also put a very good quarantine before April 2003.
I am writing such a theme to show the damaging influence of politics on the agro-ecosystem and natural balance of pests in Iraq and in the meantime raise this problem to the scientists who are interested in such resistant dilemma which we faced three years ago in Iraq, asking for their suggestions and solutions. I am ready to answer any related questions that can help the farmers and consumers overcome this tragic story.
Supported By:
Editors:
Mark
E. Whalon
Robert M. Hollingworth
Area Editors:
Plant Pathology
Margaret Tuttle McGrath
Herbicide
Jonathan Gressel
Maintained
by:
Theresa A. Baker