The town of Korhogo, located in the north of Ivory Coast, is supplied with fresh vegetables by urban and peri-urban market gardeners who regularly use synthetic pesticides during phytosanitary treatments of crops. In order to assess the level of risk of contamination of vegetables by pesticides, a survey on their use was carried out among 206 vegetable producers. The results showed that the practice of market gardening is 98% dominated by women. The average age of producers is 40.30 years. The majority of producers are illiterate with a rate of 88%. Among producers, 84% make market gardening a permanent activity. The synthetic pesticides used for this crop are 89.64% approved in Côte d'Ivoire. Phytosanitary treatments are almost generally carried out without compliant application equipment and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), by 85.93% of producers. More than half (54.11%) of the pesticides used by these market gardeners are inappropriate for the treatment of vegetables. The number of pesticide treatments per crop cycle varies between 2 and 38 treatments. The pre-harvest period (DAR) varies from 2 to 60 days from one producer to another. These results highlight poor phytosanitary practices among urban and peri-urban market gardeners in the city of Korhogo. These producers and consumers are thus exposed to risks of poisoning.
Use of pesticides …Sibirina SORO et al.