The Pesticides Control Board has been asked to look into the tests conducted on Maltese fruit and vegetables following a report by this newspaper.
Environment Minister Josè Herrera said he would be asking the board, which falls under his political responsibility, to examine the results of pesticide tests conducted by the authorities and draft recommendations on the way forward.
Last week, the Times of Malta reported how the tests conducted by the authorities had found that 20 per cent of the locally grown produce inspected had contained excessive amounts of pesticides.
All tests on imported vegetables had come back with a clean bill of health.
An exact breakdown of what was found in the tests has not yet been provided by the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA), despite requests by this newspaper, with the quantities and types of pesticides remaining unknown. The authority said the tests were conducted on produce sold at the Pitkalija, and at a ‘farmers’ market’.
Farmers at the Ta’ Qali market have however contested that any of their produce was found to be over the legal pesticide limits. They are insisting that they submitted their produce for testing and none of them had faced any penalties or court action.
Meanwhile, requests to confirm the origin of the test samples and the action taken against the farmers have not yet been provided by the authority.
Dr Herrera and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Roderick Galdes were asked for their reaction to the reports of irregular pesticide use.
Both sent identical replies to questions explaining that the use of pesticides by Maltese farmers was governed by EU laws under the parameters set by the European Food Safety Authority.
They also said that the tests conducted locally had met and even exceeded these requirements.
The government had already adopted a medium- and long-term strategy for pesticide use. These were aimed at raising farmer awareness and providing them with all the necessary information, they said.
A Farm Extension Services office is to be set up in the coming months to provide technical assistance to the farming community, including also correct use of plant protection products, they added.
‘Risk to public health’
The European Food Safety Authority says residues resulting from the use of products intended to protect plant food may pose a risk to public health.
The EU has regulations on the use of pesticides and maximum levels of residues.
Activists campaigning for the reduction of pesticide use worldwide say pesticides have been linked to a wide variety of health hazards, from headaches and nausea to cancer and endocrine disruption.
Also, chronic health effects may occur years after minimal exposure to pesticides ingested from food and water.
Farmers spray more than five kilos of active chemical ingredient per hectare of land, according to the government’s pesticide strategy document.
The National Action Plan for Sustainable Use of Pesticides was forwarded to this newspaper by Environment Minister Josè Herrera and the Agriculture Parliamentary Secretary following a report on irregular pesticide use.
The document quotes research carried out among Maltese farmers 10 years ago and forms the basis of much of the strategy on dealing with the phenomenon.
According to the research, some 87 different active substances were recorded in the pesticide survey. Their combined use amounted to just over 120 tonnes. More than 95 per cent in terms of weight of active substances was dominated by a handful of substances, with sulphur the most common.
More than 5,000 hectares, or 63 per cent of the land that was surveyed, had been sprayed with some form of pest control.
According to the report, some 30 kilos of fungicide is sprayed on every hectare of open field used to grow vegetables.
The report says that “since land fragmentation is a common feature of Maltese agriculture”, the knapsack, a backpack manual spraying method, was the most common method of pesticide application with 77 per cent opting for this method.
This, industry sources indicate, could be behind some of the excessively high test results as the method provided uneven application.
Around 15 per cent used tractor-mounted distribution systems.
Pesticide usage in Malta, the report adds, follows the “typical pattern of the Mediterranean climate”.
Herbicide applications are mainly used at the beginning of the agricultural season while fungicide use occurs throughout the agricultural year, with the main period of application occurring from April to July. Insecticide use is at its peak during the summer period when these pests are more common.