South Africa

South Africa is one of the first phase countries to receive financial and technical assistance from the Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP). The project is financially supported through a grant with the World Bank with technical support provided through the ASP Technical Support Unit at FAO. The project is managed through the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) in close cooperation with the Department of Agriculture. The project team at DEAT and DoA is complimented by representatives of the pesticide industry (represented by Crop Life SA) and a national NGO focal point (Groundwork).


South Africa is blessed with a well developed commercial agricultural sector which uses chemical pesticides and other inputs to boost production. Previous initiatives in South Africa have predominately focused on the removal of government owned stocks used to combat migratory pests. Preliminary studies have indicated that there are, however, significant quantities of obsolete pesticide stocks scattered amidst the estimated 55,000 - 60,000 commercial farms throughout the country. Add to this stocks understood to be in the hands of Provincial government departments and the scale of the project in South Africa starts to become apparent.


The project poses a different challenge to the standard obsolete pesticide projects completed in most African countries. Conventional strategies to identify and collect these obsolete stocks which have been developed and successfully implemented in other African countries would, therefore, not be effective or efficient. A decision was made to implement a pilot collection and inventory exercise in one of the nine provinces in South Africa. Following discussions with Provincial partners Limpopo (a province with a strong agricultural sector) was selected for the pilot study.

A strategy was developed in cooperation with the pesticide distributors and farmers cooperatives in the province for the delivery of obsolete pesticides from farms to the network of existing pesticide distribution centres in the province. A total of 24 centres were established and action taken to provide adequate safety and containment for stocks once they were delivered. Farmers were also provided with instructions on how to safely package and transport the stocks. A comprehensive communications and awareness campaign was then initiated. Posters were developed and distributed to all distribution centres in the province. Farmers were contacted directly through a series of SMS alerts by the pesticide distributors.


The collection phase of the project run for 60 days. At the end of this period all stocks were centralised to a main storage location in the province. At the start of the project it was anticipated that the exercise would result in the collection of a maximum of 30 tonnes of stocks. At the moment it is estimated that between 60 - 80 tonnes of stocks have been collected from the farms and provincial government sectors in Limpopo. The project is currently gearing up to complete an inventory of these stocks and thereafter repackage the pesticides for safe interim storage, pending the identification of a suitable disposal option.


The collection can be considered a huge success and provides an excellent example of multi-stakeholder cooperation between national and provincial government departments, the pesticide industry, NGO groups and farmers. The level of support from the farmers in South Africa is a great encouragement and the importance of coordinated and clear communications can not be over emphasised.