Up to 25 million farm workers in the developing world suffer an incidence of pesticide poisoning each year.*

In many fields, greenhouses or fields, dizziness, headaches and nausea are seen as everyday occurrences.

Some agricultural pesticides are highly hazardous. But the risks involved are not often apparent by the way they are casually bought, sold and applied.

Poisoning

The highest recorded rate of poisoning is in Carchi in northern Ecuador, a region with fertile soils and a generous climate which produces good crops of potatoes. But these growing conditions also favour insects and fungal diseases, so the farmers spray their crops heavily with insecticides and fungicides.

Researchers have been shocked to discover how many people in this community have experienced illness due to to pesticides. Their families are just as much at risk; lots of small children have become seriously ill or died as result of accidental poisoning.

In this two part BBC World Service series Euan McIlwraith travelled to Carchi to discover what has gone wrong. He asks what can be done to protect farmers - not just in Ecuador but throughout the world.


* World Health Organisation