The anti-paraquat campaign, which is part of the People's Caravan for food sovereignty, has been taken to China, the world's second-largest producer and consumer of pesticides.

In Yunnan yesterday, Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez said there must be a campaign against the "culprits" who produce pesticides so that "we can stop the Chinese people from suffering the same way (as others)".

'What we are trying to do is to put paraquat on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) list where companies have to give all their details to the government before they can sell or produce the poison," she said at a seminar on 'Pesticide Risks and Sustainable Agriculture'.

(The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade came into force as a legally binding law on Feb 24.

(An exporting country is required information to an importing country if the pesticide is banned or severely restricted in other countries due to its health or environmental impacts. The treaty also gives the importing country the right to refuse the importation of such pesticides.)

Irene also encouraged the NGOs present to establish a proper monitoring procedure to collect information on pesticide effects on humans.

"It is time for you to gather enough evidence of pesticide poisoning so that we have a better case for a global campaign," she told some 30 participants comprising China's leading environmental groups and academicians.

For the past 17 years, pro-migrant rights group Tenaganita - based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - has been the main campaigner against paraquat. This eventually resulted in the Malaysian government banning the herbicide from next year, the first Asian country to take the move.

The Caravan will also promote issues of rights to land and food, corporate accountability and campaigning for the agriculture sector to be taken out of World Trade Organisation's jurisdiction.

Organised by the Penang-based Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PAN-AP), the Caravan is an internationally-linked programme involving thousands of farmers and agricultural producers in Asia and Europe.

It is set to visit 13 countries in Asia and three in Europe, and will culminate with a conference and public rally in Kathmandu, Nepal, at the end of this month.

'Leading killer'

China's local Caravan host is Pesticide Eco-Alternative Centre Yunnan Thoughtful Action (PEAC), whose mission is to reduce the use of harmful pesticides domestically and to promote ecological forms of pest control.

According to a recent PEAC report, domestic pesticide consumption averaged 233,000 tonnes from 1995 to 2000. It is expected to require 300,000 tonness by next year and 350,000 tonnes by 2015.

Approximately 70 percent of pesticides used in China are deemed "highly toxic" and independent studies indicate that the country's annual rate of pesticide poisoning jumped from an average of 53,000 cases in 1980s to 123,000 in the 1990s.

Insecticides used on produce proved to be a leading chemical killer, reported PEAC.

PEAC steering council director Professor Kuang Rong-ping , who addressed the seminar, said the government is aware of the problem and has taken action, for example, by revising regulations related to pesticides.

However, Kuang said the government, farmers and consumers must work together to succeed in reducing the use of pesticides.

"I emphasise co-orperation among these parties as well as the co-operation of experts and scientists," he said.

"Clearly, China's pesticide problem is not just technical, but involve questions of a social, legal technical and policy nature."

Dr Lynn Crisanta Panganiban of PAN Philippines, said pesticides are an "inherently poisonous, non-selective substance that can harm men, women and the environment".

"They do not discriminate, they affect everyone, including pesticide distributors and producers," she said when speaking on the harmful effects of pesticides on human health.

"Pesistent Organic Pollutants move long distances down the food chain and accumulate everywhere," she added.

"For example, DDT can persist for about 96 years after being used. Which means, even after you and I die, DDT lives on."
SUSAN LOONE is a researcher with the Penang-based Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific.