Concern has grown over inadequate pesticide management in Vietnam, putting people and the environment at risk.
Farmers continue to misuse pesticides despite clear labelling
Statistics by the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said fake and substandard pesticides are flooding the Vietnamese market.
The number of chemicals and mixtures of active elements registered for import to Vietnam had sharply increased from only four to five in 1996 to 800 in 2011. The figure exceeds the number of active elements registered for use in the country, resulting in a chaotic and dangerous pesticide market and a major obstacle to management.
Despite the negative impact on human health and the environment, Vietnam is still facing many difficulties in the preservation and management of pesticides.
According to MARD, there are around 22,000 pesticide stores across the country. On average, each province has from 400 to 500 such stores.
However, only 80% of those who trade in such chemicals are licensed and unlicensed chemicals are mainly available in small quantities and in remote areas.
There have also been inadequacies in pesticide advertising and labelling, while many farmers still continue to ignore basic instructions on their use.
Meanwhile, management of pesticide sales, import and usage remains ineffective, especially at a local level, fostering the sale of fake products.
A recent report on chemical storage showed that agricultural chemicals stored in 39 cities and provinces nationwide total over 37,000 tonnes, with 53% stored in the Mekong Delta region alone. However, more than 730,000 chemical products still lack labelling, have been improperly disposed of, posing a threat to the environmental and human health.
Worse still, most localities lack specialised warehouses for pesticides.
Dr Nguyen Thi Viet Huong, Deputy Director of Institute of State and Law, said most current warehouses were designed to store normal goods, not dangerous chemicals. Most of the warehouses are in substandard condition.
In some places like Lao Cai Province, there are no warehouses for pesticides, forcing authorities to store such chemicals in other locations. Several warehouses in Lang Son Province are overloaded.
Nguyen Xuan Hong, head of Hanoi Plant Protection Department, said in order to ensure effective pesticide management, they regularly co-ordinated with relevant agencies to conduct inspections of pesticide stores and trading companies in the capital.
Hong admitted that they faced many difficulties in managing pesticides due to inadequate responsibility and vagueness over which agency was responsible for the monitoring of the market, warehousing, costs of preservation and destruction.
To improve the situation, he called on co-operation between several ministries.
