Paulina Quintao – Farmers' groups urged the National Parliament to create a law to control and regulate the importing and the use of chemical pesticides in Timor-Leste to safeguard people's health.
The Manager of AGI Agriculture Organization, Nilton Aniceto said the pesticide law is urgent, because currently, pesticides are sold arbitrarily and everyone can access and use pesticides as they wish because there is not a law to regulate this.
He said farmers' knowledge regarding the use of pesticides is still too limited, while pesticides are being sold without any control, which can harm people's health and destroy the quality of the land.
"Two weeks before harvesting vegetables, we are not allowed to use pesticides anymore, but in reality, some people still use them and this is very dangerous. Therefore, I suggest we accelerate the pesticide law," he said.
He said consuming vegetables is good for health, but vegetables that use pesticides can harm people's health, because when we consume those vegetables, the pesticides may cause various diseases.
Meanwhile, the representative of the Avansa Agriculture Project, Jacob dos Reis agreed on the necessity of creating a law, to regulate the importing and the distribution of pesticides to the markets, and its usage, and that many pesticides are from Indonesia.
"We conducted a study visit to Malaysia and they did not have not a policy regarding pesticide usage. Pesticides were being used freely, so areas are contaminated with chemicals. If we do not want to be like that, we need to create a law to control it," he said.
Regarding this issue, MP Mariano Assanami Sabino said the draft law on pesticides, is still in the Council Minister's agenda.
He said that if the draft was tabled at the parliament, then the parliament would have prioritized a discussion and made a pronouncement, but it was done as a decree law so it will only be tabled at the council ministers' level.
"I think, we need to regulate pesticides, because it harms people, which will have a negative impact on people's health. We will consider this issue and at the basic laws that regulate seeds and fertilizers," he added.