|
|
Kenya: Support Pyrethrum Farmers
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Business Daily (Nairobi)
EDITORIAL
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
A story in our pages yesterday painted a grim picture of how we have failed - as a nation - to tame Malaria despite having an opportunity to lead in the efforts. But then there is the global sabotage.
This nation is home to pyrethrum and we have not managed to cash in on the multi-million dollar war against malaria. A money-minting opportunity is getting lost. Some of the reasons are local, while others are global.
WHO says malaria kills about 1.3 million people each year and recommends use of mosquito nets and spraying of insecticides around houses.
But dumping of synthetically treated nets is going on in this country and elsewhere.
We should be worried about our failure to get our pyrethrum industry in order and how we are losing an opportunity.
But WTO is also failing us. It is regrettable that the bed nets recommended by WHO officials are treated with pyrethroids - a synthetic version of natural pyrethrin. The argument brought forward over why WHO has not gone for pyrethrum is because the latter is more stable.
While WHO officials also recommend indoor residual spraying with the pyrethroids, malaria cases continue to rise.
|
As a pyrethrum growing nation, we must invest in our pyrethrum to defeat malaria, and stop importation of other products to tame the disease when we have a natural plant with us.
As noted in the article, the fundamental problem is that local pyrethrum producers do not fully comprehend that the people at the WHO are flooding the local market with a synthetic pyrethroid.
We must get involved in the malaria control business by backing pyrethrum farmers.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
