Trend of Pesticides Uses in Nepal

Abstract

This paper has attempted to analyze the trend of pesticide import, formulation and consumption in Nepal. Nepal has diverse agro-ecological conditions and different agro-ecological climatic conditions necessitate varieties of approaches to crop cultivation and crop protection. The national use of pesticides in Nepal is 396 a.i./ha with the highest use in the vegetable. This review used relevant secondary data and information. The study found that the fungicides are the major form of Pesticides used in Nepal for the pest control and the trend of pesticides consumption is increasing for agricultural purposes. The Nepal Government has signed different international treaties,made rules and regulations and initiated different types of programs to minimize the use of pesticides.

Full text

Journal
of the
Plant Protection Society
Volume 5 2018
Plant Protection Society Nepal

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Review Article
TREND OF PESTICIDE USE IN NEPAL
Kiran Ghimire1 and Arun GC2
ABSTRACT
This paper has attempted to analyze the trend of pesticide import, formulation and
consumption in Nepal. Nepal has diverse agro-ecological conditions and different agro-
climatic conditions necessitate varieties of approaches to crop cultivation and crop
protection. The average national use of pesticides in Nepal is 396g a.i./ha with the highest
use in the vegetable. This review used relevant secondary data, and information. The study
found that the fungicides are the major form of pesticides used in Nepal for the pest
control and the trend of pesticides consumption is increasing for agricultural purposes. The
Nepal Government has signed different international treaties, made rules and regulations
and initiated different types of programs to minimize the use of pesticides.
Key words: Pesticides, fungicides, consumption, Nepal, trend
INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the main source of income, which contributes 27.76% to the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) of Nepal (MoF, 2018) and engaging 65.6% people in it (AICC, 2018). The
pesticide uses in Nepal started since after the green revolution i.e. at early1960 (Dahal,
1995). Since then, pesticides became one of the priority input in modern agriculture to raise
production by tackling with ever-growing pests. It is estimated that Nepal losses 35% of
production due to pests’ attack in the field and at the storage condition (Palikhe, 2002; PPD,
2013). Occasionally, the pest outbreaks and epidemics may cause a complete failure of crop
harvest. By reducing these losses, there would be a considerable increase in availability of
food, contributing to the food security.
However, use of pesticides comes along with the adverse effect in the health of people, land
and environment (Padmavathi, 2013; GC and Ghimire, 2018), yield loss due to non-target
pesticide application resulting in pesticide-induced pest resurgence and increasing financial
burden to farmers (Thapa, 2003). Farmers apply chemical pesticides at high dose and
frequency, cocktail spray (Aryal, 2014) because of lack of awareness regarding the harmful
effects such as cancer (Basil et al., 2007) improper fetal development (Wickerham et al.,
1 Plant Quarantine Officer, National Plant Quarantine Program, Hariharbhawan, Nepal
2 Agriculture Extension Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Land management and Cooperative, Singhdurbar,
Nepal
Email for correspondence: kiran.ghimire17@gmail.com

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2012), Parkinson's disease (Yesavage et al., 2004), birth defects (Garry et al., 2002) altered
growth, acute and chronic neurotoxicity (Savage et al., 1998).
Nepal is signatory of several international conventions related to pesticide regulation. The
Basel Convention on the Control of Trans boundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and
Their Disposal was entered into force on 5 May 1992 (approved on March 22, 1989). Nepal
has ratified the treaty on August 15, 1992. Similarly, the Rotterdam Convention, which
deals with Prior Informed Consent procedures for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticide
in international trade, was came into force on September 11, 1998 (approved on September
11, 1998) and Nepal has ratified it on October 17, 2006. Likewise, the Stockholm
Convention, which deals with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), was came into force on
May 17, 2004 (approved on May 22, 2001) and Nepal has ratified it on October 17, 2006
(signed on April 5, 2002). These international conventions have laid down several
obligations to Nepal (PRMD, 2016b).
METHODOLOGY
A rigorous desk review was carried-out for the study. The major source of data and
information were accessed from the publications and database of Pesticide Registration and
Management Division (PRMD), which was established in BS 2051 (the name of the office
was Pesticide Registration Office at that time) according to the provision of the Pesticide
Act, 2048 and the Pesticide Regulation, 2050 (PRMD, 2016b). The PRMD is responsible
for registration and deregistration of pesticides in Nepal. Besides publications and database
of PRMD, the published reports and data by other relevant government organizations were
considered as the major sources of data and information. Similarly, several independent
research articles were reviewed for this study. All the available data and information were
analyzed and presented.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Pesticides consumption in Nepal
The national consumption of pesticide in Nepal is 396g a.i./ha (PPD, 2016 ; Sharma, 2015),
which is higher than the previous record of 142g a.i./ha (Thapa, 1997 ; Sharma, 2015).
However, lesser than the other Asian countries like India 0.5 kg/ha, Japan 12 kg/ha and
China 14 kg/ha, Korea 6.6 kg/ha, and other countries like- USA (7.0 kg/ha) and Europe (2.5
kg/ha) (Arora et al., 2011 ; Gupta, 2004).
On the ecological basis, the highest average pesticide used in the Terai region of Nepal i.e.
0.995 a.i. kg/ha followed by valley (0.470 a.i. kg/ha), hill (0.314 a.i. kg/ha) and lowest in the
high hill (0.085 a.i. kg/ha) (PPD, 2015). According to a survey report, heavy pesticide use
was found in the Central Development Region (1.015a.i. kg/ha) followed by Eastern
Development Region (0.616 a.i. kg/ha), Western Development Region (0.276 a.i. kg/ha),
Mid-Western Development Region (0.225 a.i. kg/ha) and least in the Far-Western

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Development Region (0.146 a.i.kg/ha) (PRMD, 2014). A similar result was found among
the development regions, the use of chemical pesticides was higher (31.9% of the total use)
in the Central Development Region and the lowest (6.4%) in the Far Western Development
Region in 2001/02 (Sharma et al., 2012).
Fig. 1 : Pesticides use by Country (Source: Arora et al., 2011)
In Nepal, the highest share of pesticide consumption are of insecticides i.e. 1064.07 mt. by
formulation quantity, whereas by total active ingredient (a.i.) fungicides are one of the
highly consumed pesticides i.e. 250.81 mt (PRMD, 2016a).
The uses of pesticides in different crop
The highest share of pesticides is of vegetables. It accounts for 89% of the total pesticide
use followed by cash crops and found least in cereals as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Pesticide use in crops
S.N.
Crops
Quantity a.i.kg/ha
1
Cereals
0.04613
2 Vegetables 1.60469
3
Cash crops
0.18654
4
Pulses
0.05075
5
Fruits
0.02919
(Source: Survey Report on National Pesticide Consumption Statistics in Nepal, 2014 and PPD, 2015)
The proportion of vegetable growers using pesticides increased from 7.1% in 1991/92 to
16.1% in 2001/2002 (CBS, 2006). In the 1980s, one percent of the wheat growers applied
pesticides in their farming operations (CBS, 2006) while less than one percent of the rice,
0.39 0.5
12
14
6.6
7
2.5
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Nepal
India
Japan
China
Korea
USA
Europe
kg a.i./ha
Country
Pesticides in kg a.i./ha

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maize, potato and sugarcane growers used pesticides during the same period (Sharma et al.,
2012).
Nepalese crop protection market split
To the date, 2,576 pesticides are registered by their trade name and 139 pesticides by their
common name as mentioned in Table 2. Total 160 firms are registered for pesticide import 5
companies for pesticide formulations and 19 as pesticide applicator in Nepal (PRMD,
2016a). Till 2016, 11,777 licenses have been issued for pesticide resell and 11,159
certificate provided to safe storage and use of pesticides (PRMD, 2016a).
Table 2. Registered Pesticides up to 2016/17
S.N.
Pesticides
Trade Name
Common Name
1 Insecticide 1405 52
2
Acaricide
27
6
3
Fungicide
648
40
4
Bactericide
15
1
5
Herbicide
350
22
6 Rodenticide 33 2
7
Molluscicide
2
1
8
Bio-pesticide
90
12
9
Herbal
6
3
Total
2576
139
(Source: PRMD, 2018)
Table 3. Banned Pesticides in Nepal till 2016
S.N. Pesticides Name
Banned
Year Remarks
WHO
group Hazard level
1 Chlordane 2001 Persistent organic
pollutants
II Moderately Hazardous
2 DDT 2001 Persistent organic
pollutants II Moderately Hazardous
3
Dieldrin
2001
Persistent organic
pollutants
II
Moderately Hazardous
4 Endrin 2001 Persistent organic
pollutants
O Obsolete as pesticide,
not classified
5 Aldrin 2001 Persistent organic
pollutants O Obsolete as pesticide,
not classified
6
Heptachlor
2001
Persistent organic
pollutants
O
Obsolete as pesticide,
not classified

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S.N. Pesticides Name
Banned
Year
Remarks
WHO
group
Hazard level
7
Mirex
2001
Persistent organic
pollutants
O
Obsolete as pesticide,
not classified
8 Toxafen 2001 Persistent organic
pollutants
O Obsolete as pesticide,
not classified
9 Lindane 2001 Persistent organic
pollutants
II Moderately Hazardous
10
BHC
2001
II
Moderately Hazardous
11 Phosphamidon 2001 Ia Extremely Hazardous
12
Organo Mercury
Chloride
2001
II
Moderately Hazardous
13 Methyl Parathion 2006 Ia Extremely Hazardous
14
Monocrotophos
2006
Ib
Highly Hazardous
15 Endosulphan 2012 Persistent organic
pollutants II Moderately Hazardous
16
Phorate
2015 is in
grace period
Ia
Extremely Hazardous
(Source: PRMD, 2016a and WHO/ICPS, 2009)
Total 16 pesticides were completely banned in Nepal. Similarly, in India 34 pesticides were
banned as of 15th October 2015 (CIBRC, 2015).
Pesticide imports in Nepal
The trend of pesticide use is increasing in Nepal by about 20% per year and expenses on
pesticide in market-oriented vegetables and fruits production has become a major cost factor
(Jasmine et al., 2008). Different forms of pesticides are imported, and their amount is
increasing day by day in Nepal. According to the latest estimate, the annual import of
pesticides in Nepal is about 562 mt. a.i. (PRMD, 2016a) with 32% insecticides, 44%
fungicides, 23% Herbicides and 1% others. Insecticides (Organochlorines,
Organophosphates, Carbamates, Synthetic-pyrethroids and others/mix) are the major types
of the pesticides. Among them, organophosphates are the major constituents of insecticides
imported in Nepal (Jasmine et al., 2008). The graph shows that the use of insecticides
increased remarkably after 2004/2005 as shown in Figure 2, which may be due to the pest
like Brown planthopper outbreak occurred in Chitwan district and lost almost all the rice
yields Farmers do not want to take risk of crop failure that's why dependency on pesticides
is increasing day by day.

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Fig. 2 : Trend of Insecticides (Source: PRMD, 2016)
Around twenty-two percent of the farmers apply pesticides before the incidence of disease
pest, 51% after the incidence of disease pest and 27% at the later stage of disease pest
development (PPD, 2016 ; PRMD, 2014). The studies have shown that more than 90% of
the total pesticides are used in vegetable farming (Atreya and Sitaula, 2010). People are
using pesticides as necessary evil, as there are no effective alternatives available for the pest
control, in wrong way, due to weak monitoring and legal provision, open border situation,
lack of awareness, training and knowledge among people regarding pesticide use and it’s
management, no provision for integrated pest management and organic products
certification, accumulation of date expired pesticides and weak co-ordination and co-
operation among the different governmental organizations are the major cause of increased
pesticide use (PRMD, 2016b).
Fig: 3: Pesticide Import in Nepal in monetary term (Source PRMD, 2016a)
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
a
i
K
g
o
r
L
Organochlorines
Organophosphates
Carbamates
Syntheticpyrethroids
others/mix
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
Pesticide in a.i. (Kg or L)
Amount (Thousand Rs.)

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In 1997/98, the pesticide imported and formulated in Nepal was 50,000 kg, which was
soared to about 562,000 kg in 2015/16, which is more than 11 folds increase. Regarding the
expenditure for pesticide import and formulation, in 1997/98, 51 million Nepalese rupees
(NRs.) was spent. This expenditure was rose to more than NRs 679 million in 2015/16.
Likewise, in 2007/08 the amount of organochlorines and other/mix insecticides import was
increased much higher than previous year and continued thereafter. Similarly, in 2008/09
organophosphates and other/mix insecticide amount import was increased. In 2009/10, the
pesticide import was decreased rapidly perhaps due to integrated pest management (IPM)
program running intensively in different districts of Nepal to minimize the harmful effects
of pesticides. But the import of all firms of insecticides such as organochlorines,
organophosphates, carbamates, synthetic-pyrethroids and other/mix were increased in
2010/11 because of no best alternatives available in place of chemical pesticides to control
the pests. This might help in proving the increasing dependency upon the chemical to
increase the agricultural productivity and there are no effective alternatives available to
substitute chemical pesticides in Nepal.
Purposes of pesticide use
Fig. 4 : Pesticide use purposes (Source: PRMD, 2016a)
The pesticides are used not only with agricultural objectives but also with public health and
household purposes (PRMD, 2016a). The maximum amount of pesticides, which includes
insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, bio-pesticides, acaricides, herbicides, bactericides,
molluscicides and others are used in agriculture sector, mainly to control crop loss by
insects, weeds, plant diseases, rodents, etc. The pesticides in public health purposes are
primarily for vector control of public health diseases, like malaria , dengue, whereas for
household purposes for cleaning, control of rodents, termites, bedbug, etc. The graph shows

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the amount of pesticide use in the agricultural sector is increasing as time passes due to pest
resistance to pesticides, a resurgence of pests, elimination of the natural enemies, and
disruption of the ecosystem (Palikhe, 2002). The misuse of the pesticides, especially, the
broad-spectrum ones in Nepal has caused pests to adapt and become resistant to the
pesticides (Yadav and Lian, 2009), the most pesticides are then required at higher doses to
achieve the same level of control. Similarly, the graph shows a significant decrease in the
amount of pesticides use in the public health sector as the level of awareness in people
regarding the harmful effects of the pesticides is increasing.
Summary of date expired pesticides accumulated in Nepal
Nepal had already disposed 74.28 mt. obsolete pesticides and 43 cylinders of methyl
bromide (50kg) with the help of GIZ in 2011.
Table 4. Amount of date expired pesticides disposed in 2011
S.N.
Pesticide group
Amount (Mt)
% of total
1
Mixed (PoP and OC)
23.61
31.79
2
Organochlorine
10.48
14.11
3
POPs
10.05
13.53
4
OM
8.38
11.28
5
OP
7.95
10.70
6
Fungicides
4.45
5.99
7
Rodenticides
2.6
3.50
8
Fumigants
2.52
3.39
9
SP
1.86
2.50
10
Herbicides
1.84
2.48
11
CM
0.54
0.73
Grand Total
74.28
100
(Source: GC, 2011 ; Sharma et al.,2012)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has completed their
collection from Nepal in 2011 and disposal in Germany (Sharma et al., 2012).
Approaches to reduce pesticide use in Nepal
• Pesticide Act 2048 and regulations 2050 for efficient handling, use and management
of pesticides.
• Nepal is a signatory member of International treaties like Basal convention,
Stockholm convention and Rotterdam convention.
• Awareness and campaign regarding "Pesticides are poison, not the medicine".
• Adoption of IPM technology to minimize the use of pesticides.

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• Rapid bioassay of pesticide residue (RBPR) analysis has been established since
June 18, 2014.
• Celebrating "No Pesticide Use Week" in every year from 3rd to 10th December
since 2013.
• New Act, rules and regulations were made to regulate the misuse of pesticide.
• Different trainings like safe storage of pesticides, handling of pesticides and selling
of pesticides were provided to train the pesticide resellers.
• Agro-vet, Pesticide reseller licensing processes in related to pesticide sale, storage
and handling has been improved.
• Subsidy on the use of bio-pesticides.
• Awareness through different media likes - newspaper, television, radio, F.M., etc.
• E-plant clinic has been started to help farmers in controlling the pests and haphazard
use of pesticides.
• District Agriculture Development Offices (DADOs) under Plant Protection
Directorate (PPD) organize plant clinic every week regularly.
• Community IPM resource centers has been established.
• Promotion and export of organic products like coffee, an apple from Jumla, honey,
etc.
• Regular monitoring from different organization like Department of Food
Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC), Plant Protection Directorate (PPD),
National Plant Quarantine Program (NPQP) to regulate the use of pesticides in
agricultural produce.
CONCLUSION
In Nepal, the consumption of the pesticide is increasing for the agricultural purposes, though
low national average as compared to other countries in the world. However, the risk and the
hazards to the farmers are higher than other countries. Farmers need to be reminded that
pesticides are not the only control measures for pest problems, bio-pesticides are one of the
best alternatives. The proper and the scientific mechanism of pesticide disposal (should be
listed in the Pesticide Act and Regulation) should be made and applied. The strengths of the
Government, I/NGOs and other stakeholders should be utilized fully to check the pesticide
misuse.
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