by Kampala, Uganda (AP) – in the Mbale district of Uganda, known for his production of Arabica Coffee, is sharpened by a plague made of plastic bags that are known as Buveera beyond the city.
It is a problem that the landscape in Kampala, the capital, in which Buveera is woven into the tissues of everyday life. They show themselves in layers of unpaved roads and clog waterways. But now they can also be found in remote areas of arable land. Some of the debris contain the thick plastic bags that are used to plant coffee seeds in kindergartens.
Some farmers complain, said Wilson Watira, head of a cultural board for Bamasaba coffee growth. “They are concerned – the farmers who know the effects of Buveera on the country,” he said.
All over the world, plastics find their way into the farm fields. Climate change makes agricultural plastic, which is even more inevitable for some farmers. In the meantime, research continues to show that the Itty-Bitty microplastics change the ecosystems and end up in human body. Scientists, farmers and consumers are worried about how this affects human health, and many are looking for solutions. Industry experts, however, say that it is difficult to know where plastic ends or get rid of them completely, even if the best intentions of reuse and recycling programs.
According to a report from 2021 on plastic in agriculture through the United Nations’ food and agricultural organization, soils are one of the main receptors for agricultural plastic. Some studies have estimated that floors are more dirty by microplastics than the oceans.
“These things are published in such a large size that it will require great technical solutions,” said Sarah Zack, a specialist for the Great Lakes Contaminant Specialist from Illinois-Indiana-Sea, which communicates the public about microplastics.
Why researchers want to examine plastics in agricultural fields
Microparticles made of plastic, which come from articles such as clothing, medication and beauty products, sometimes appear in fertilizers from the solid side products of wastewater treatment, which are referred to as biosolids-depending on the treatment process used, also stinking and poisonous for residents nearby. Some seeds are coated in plastic polymers in order to be strategically dissolved at the right time of the season, in containers to keep pesticides or stretch out over fields to lock moisture.
However, the agricultural industry itself only makes up a little more than three percent of all plastics used worldwide. About 40% of all plastics are used in the packaging, including one-way food and beverage ads made of plastic.
The microplastics, which defines the national ocean and atmosphere as less than five millimeters long, are its largest in about the size of a pencil rubber. Some are much smaller.
Studies have already shown that microplastics are absorbed by plants on land or plankton in the ocean and then eaten by animals or humans. Scientists still examine the long -term effects of the plastic found in human organs. However, early insights indicate possible connections to a variety of health conditions such as heart disease and some types of cancer.
Despite “significant research gaps”, the LEV Neretin, environmental chairman at FAO, which is currently working on another technical report with the land -based food chain in connection with the “Alarm” country food chain, which is currently working deeper into the problem of microplastic pollution in floors and harvest.
A study this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that the pollution of the microplastics can even influence the ability of the plants for photosynthesis, the process through which they transform light from the sun into energy. The “justifies excessive problem”, but underlines “risks of nutritional security that require scientific attention”, Feib Dang, one of the authors of the study.
Climate change worsens the matter
The use of plastics has quadrupled over the past 30 years. Plastic is omnipresent. And most of the world’s plastic goes to landfills, pollutes the environment or is burned. Less than 10% of the plastics are recycled.
At the same time, some farmers are increasingly dependent on plastic to protect the effects of extreme weather. You use planning, Hoop houses and other technologies to control the conditions for your plants. And they are more dependent on chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers in order to buffer against unreliable weather and more omnipresent pest problems.
“Due to the global warming, we have fewer and fewer arable land to harvest. But we need more harvesting. Therefore, the demand for agricultural chemicals is increasing,” said Ole Rosgaard, President and CEO of Greif, a company that produces packaging for industrial agricultural products such as pesticides and other chemicals.
The extreme weather, which is heated by climate change, also contributes to the breakdown and transport of agricultural plastics. The slage of sun can carry materials over time. And more frequent and more intensive precipitation events in some areas could drive more plastic particles in fields and finally waterways, said Maryam Salehi, Associate Professor of Citizens’ and Environmental Engineering at the University of Missouri.
Can agriculture escape from the plastic problem?
Last winter, managers from all over the world gathered in South Korea to create the first legally binding global contract for the pollution of plastics. You have not reached an agreement, but the negotiations are to be resumed in August.
Nerentin said that the FAO had created a preliminary, voluntary code of conduct for sustainable management of plastics in agriculture. But without a formal contract, most countries have no strong incentive to follow him.
“The mood is certainly not happy, that’s sure,” he said, adding that global cooperation “takes time, but the problem does not disappear.”
Without political will, a large part of the responsibility falls on companies.
Rosgaard from Greif said that his company had worked to make their products recyclable, and that farmers have incentives to return them because they can be paid in exchange. But he added that it was sometimes difficult to prevent people from burning only the plastic or letting it in fields or waterways.
“We just don’t know where they end all the time,” he said.
Some want to stop the flow of plastic and microplastic waste in ecosystems. Boluwatife Olubusoye, doctoral student at the University of Mississippi, tries to see, whether biochar, the remains of organic substance and plant waste burned under controlled conditions filter out microplastics that flow from agricultural fields in waterways. His early experiments have shown promising.
He said that he was motivated by the feeling that there is primarily in the areas of “no timely solution to plastic waste”, especially in developing countries.
Even for farmers who take care of plastics in soils, it can be a challenge for them to do something about it. In Uganda, the owners of children’s beds cannot afford the right seedling shells, so that they used cheap plastic bags for seeds, said Jacob Ogola, an independent agronomist.
The farmers affected by climate change are least able to reduce the presence of cheap plastic waste in soils. This frustrates innocent Piloya, an agroecological entrepreneur who grows coffee with her company Ribbo Coffee in rural Uganda.
“It’s like little farmers fighting plastic manufacturers,” she said.
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Walling reported from Chicago.
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