In 2025, Kenya, its farmers, and its consumers will deliver a world demonstration of why scientists have been pleading for government policies on pest control to be evidence-based, as they are instead swept up in a tide of misinformation.
A case in point is the pesticide chlorothalonil, one of the world’s most widely used fungicides. In Kenya, it has been the crop protection of choice for diseases such as potato and tomato blight, mildew, botrytis, and black spot, as well as stem rust on wheat, and coffee berry disease.
The campaign against pesticides in Kenya focused on Chlorothalonil precisely because it is widely used, with initiatives such as testing vegetables to demonstrate detectable residues.
However, no one would believe that residues are less toxic than a cup of coffee, so they needed to present Chlorothalonil as poisonous.
The only remaining question is whether we will have to face a similar situation to Sri Lanka, with spiralling food prices, starving families, and havoc to lives, human health, and livelihoods, to realise that pests destroy food.
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