The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has organised two-day training for pesticide input dealers in the Eastern Region.

The training was intended to equip the pesticide dealers with requisite knowledge in pesticide control and management as well as understanding the legal implications surrounding the pesticide business.

Participants were also taught some common pictograms seen on labels of pesticides, their meanings and implications.

The training programme was funded by the West Africa Agricultural Productivity programme (WAAPP2).

Opening the training programme, Mr Felix Addo Okyireh, Eastern Regional Director of the EPA, reminded the dealers that, they needed to understand their work well to enable them to offer the necessary advice to farmers on the proper use of the chemicals.

He indicated that as much as possible, all chemical dealers in the country ought to be able to read and understand basic instructions on labels before they can obtain permit to sell them.

He called for more support from organisations to enable the EPA to train all chemical dealers in the region, to ensure that poor farmers and their neighbours do not die due to misapplication of chemicals and incorrect disposal of the chemical containers.

Mr Joseph Edmund, Deputy Director of Chemical Control and Management Centre at the EPA, who was the resource person, said all chemicals, apart from the ones meant for experiments, are supposed to have an EPA number on their labels.

He, therefore, urged chemical dealers, farmers and everyone who sees a chemical without an EPA number on its label to report such cases to the nearest EPA office.

Mr Edmund also advised the chemical dealers to be abreast with the laws governing their business and to strictly adhere to them to avoid being prosecuted.

The participants were taken through the EPA Act of 1994 (Act 490), and other topics such as “pesticide registration and licensing procedures in Ghana”, “understanding the pesticide labels”, “adulterated and counterfeit products” and “Disposal of pesticides and empty containers” among others.