New regulations on pest control safety labelling

If any of us were given a warning by an alien, in a language we did not understand, with symbols we had never seen before, we would not emerge warned–which is a fact that is now driving legislative reform in Kenya to ensure warnings on pest control products are understandable to every farmer. The aim is to ensure farmers reap far higher yields without causing any damage to themselves or their land. As it is, pest control products used in Kenya have been through around nine years of safety testing and more than 100 kinds of tests in order to gain approval for use in their countries of origin, such as the US, Australia and other national regimes that only approve pesticides when they are proven to be risk-free for the prescribed use. Until they have achieved that, Kenya’s law prohibits their use in Kenya. But even once they have been tested to identify safe ways of using them –for instance, only up to seven days before harvesting –if farmers use them in other ways, they can still be a hazard. And here lies the problem legislators are now trying to address, in ways that will put Kenya at the