Assessment of the selected pesticide residues in cabbage, eggplant and tomato from Rusizi and Nyamasheke districts of western province of Rwanda

Abstract

Using pesticides in agriculture is an alternative taken for increasing crops production. However, the continuous use of these chemicals generates negative effects to the living health specifically to farmers and crop consumers. Due to the high availability of water and warmest weather, the Western Province of Rwanda is focusing among its agriculture targets, the increase of the production of vegetables and fruits. In order to reach this target, farmers from this region of Rwanda use a variety of insecticides to safeguard their crops against various pests. However, this poses a concern for environmental pollution in general as well as food and health contamination. Prior to advising farmers, consumers, and decision-makers, this study attempted to understand the types of pesticides used in Rwanda's Western Province and to evaluate the prevalence of pesticide residues in various crops. The survey realized on 300 farmers and 30 agrodealers was conducted to get data on the types of pesticides used in this area and how they are handled by users. High Performance Liquid Chromatography was used to track the residue levels of selected agrochemicals in cabbage, tomato and eggplant samples which were randomly taken from different markets of this province. The results indicated that Metalaxyl, Cypermethrin, Abamectin, Deltamethrin and Profenofos were the most applied pesticides used in this locality of Rwanda. Survey data indicated that 95 % of the interviewed farmers applied these chemicals using different illegal ways which risk to cause their intoxication and environmental pollution. Among these interviewed farmers, 96 % didn’t get any training on the use of these chemicals while 93.4 % handled them without any protective equipment. These risk not only to not respect of mixing labels, but also to mismanagement of these agrochemicals. The results from chemical analysis showed that 30%; 36.67% and 23.33% of the analyzed tomato, cabbage and eggplant, respectively, were contaminated with pesticide residues. The most detected pesticides in all types of samples, tomato, cabbage and eggplant was Metalaxyl which detected at high level of 1.947ppm in tomato and cyhalothrin detected in eggplant with a concentration of 1.97 ppm. Through this study it was found that improvement of management and awareness on the use of pesticides is highly needed for farmers, pesticides sellers and vegetable v consumers to avoid risk of health intoxication and environmental pollution. For further research, it is advised to carry out similar studies on other crop, environmental and biological samples.