Policy vacuum
Leaving blast disease untreated can wipe out operations. One agricultural development programme suspended loan repayments from farmers following a blast disease incident. But because the disease and the insect thought to carry it aren’t prevalent in Southeast Asia, there’s no need to follow this treatment pathway.
The RSPO Principle and Criteria (P&C) state that ‘there is no prophylactic use of pesticides, except in specific situations identified in national best practice guidelines’.
But prophylactic use is essential with blast disease. When soil moisture drops below a certain point, trees become susceptible, and national best practice guidelines don’t exist in most African countries.
The P&C also state that the organisation will ‘urgently’ identify alternatives for these chemicals. But the fact is that, there is no urgency outside of Africa.
This is something of a policy vacuum here. There’s no doubt that, when the P&C were written, all the best intentions were there – whether it was the development of national guidelines and interpretations, or coming up with an alternative to carbofuran. But at this stage, this is a problem that has fallen through the cracks.
Here’s an example of the dilemma. Carbofuran itself has been recommended as an alternative to other more toxic pesticides that are banned under the Stockholm Convention. So what are farmers in Africa supposed to do?
The obvious pathways are to have national interpretations completed or to develop national best practice guidelines. But this is easier said than done. This takes time and money and often requires a level of political and bureaucratic will that is often lacking.
