Pesticides and Biopesticides Use in Market Gardening in Ouagadouou, Burkina Faso

Abstract

This study aims to identify the pesticides and biopesticides used in market gardening in the outskirts of Ouagadougou in order to raise awareness among producers and populations. A semi-structured survey was conducted among 96 market gardeners on the use of pesticides and biopesticides in market garden production. Descriptive analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 6 software. GC/MS analysis was performed to search for pesticide residues on the two most widely grown vegetables according to the survey results. The chemical compounds were studied using the WILLEY-CH 1992, NIST 2004 and PEST database libraries. According to this study, men represented 54.17% and women 45.83% of market gardening activity. The main crops encountered in the sites were lettuce (17%), cabbage (15%), eggplant (12%), onion (11%) and tomato (10%). Twenty-eight (28) pesticides were identified; two (2) were very dangerous, of which 18 were moderately dangerous, seven were less dangerous and one product was not classified according to the WHO classification. Nine (09) families of pesticides have been identified; the most important was pyrethroid (30%). More than half of market gardeners did not respect the dose prescribed (57%) on the labels. A large number of market gardeners (70%) respected the persistence time. The results also indicate eight biopesticide formulations and two complex formulations identified. No hazardous pesticides were detected in the two most widely grown vegetables, lettuce and cabbage. Market gardening on the outskirts of cities requires constant monitoring and supervision to reduce health and environmental risks.