Insecticide Use and Application in Cameroon

Abstract

Cameroon has a diverse natural environment with five agro-ecological zones that support the cultivation of many crops. The country relies mainly on agriculture, with main export crops such as cocoa, coffee, cotton and banana. The agricultural sector occupies an average of about 47 million hectares of land with different production system practices such as mono cropping, mixed cropping, intercropping etc. Biotic factors are major constraints. These biotic constraints are seriously hindering the crop production, resulting to pre-and post-harvest losses and lower yields. These pests are mainly from the arthropod, vertebrate, mollusk, weeds and nematode groups and disease-causing pathogen such as fungi, viruses and bacteria. With these constraints famers in developing world like Cameroon are forced to look for ways to control these pests and pathogens which lead to the use of numerous preventive and curative techniques including the use of insecticides. Using insecticides is not against the law but the application methods and the supply routes carried out by farmers and traders respectively might be bad. This is why this chapter reviews the insecticides supply routes, registration procedure and registered insecticides, insecticidal application with its malpractices while looking at its intoxication as well as the alternatives to the use of synthetic insecticides in Cameroon and make possible recommendations to promote judicious use of insecticides in Cameroon.