Newspaper Article 1994 – Little HB interest in chemical safety courses

Little HB interest in chemical safety course

By Geoff Mercer
Staff Reporter, Hastings

Orchardists have been slow to register for agricultural chemical safety courses, but agricultural farmers have ignored them completely.

Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic which has conducted most of the Growsafe agricultural chemical training courses in Hawke’s Bay, had put through no one from Hawke’s Bay’s 1800 livestock farms.

Altogether about 450 horticulturists and workers from associated industries had attended courses over the almost three years they had been offered, he said.

‘Money making’

Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers president Duncan Scott defended the Hawke’s Bay farmers yesterday for staying away in droves, referring to the courses as a “money making scheme” for educationists.

“I don’t see the necessity for it really. The exposure of most farmers to these chemicals, even if they aren’t adequately dressed, isn’t high.”

Hawke’s Bay and Waikato are both being targeted by the New Zealand Agrichemical Education Trust, which is trying to boost marketing of the Growsafe courses. The two regions have been chosen to test a range of selling approaches.

HB meetings

Trust chairman Keith Jowsey and trust consultant Pat Clark this month attended meetings at Dannevirke, Waipawa and Hastings to address farmers, horticulturists, local authorities, primary sector representatives and agrichemical merchants.

Mr Scott said farmers used so few chemicals it was hardly necessary for them to pay to attend a safety course.

However, he said those involved in crop spraying should consider doing one.

Animal remedies, including dips, carried clear withholding periods and safety instructions on their labels, although the writing on them tended to be “a bit small”.

New scheme

Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers was developing an on-farm quality assurance scheme that would force farmers to document their conformance with such requirements as withholding periods.

Mr Scott said he believed the quality assurance programme would achieve the same result as a Growsafe course.

“Farmers do a reasonable job and take reasonable precautions. I don’t see them dying all over the place. That says something.”

Circumstances were different for horticulturists. They used stronger chemicals over longer periods. He knew of orchardists whose deaths were spray-related, he said.

Wisdom needed

Mr Calcinai said if livestock farmers were dealing with dips strong enough to require wool to be withheld from sale for a certain period, they needed the “wisdom” a Growsafe course could offer.

After the three district Growsafe meetings it had been decided to target livestock farmers early in the new year – the most appropriate time for them to complete a course, he said.

Individual orchardists were at last beginning to enrol in reasonable numbers after showing initial “reluctance”. An element of compulsion had been introduced by the Apple and Pear Marketing Board, which this month released a code of practice for growers wanting their fruit eligible for export to the United States. The code requires one person from an orchard to have achieved Growsafe accreditation.

Corporate growers

But many growers who had put off attending courses were finally getting around to doing them, he said.

Most of those who had completed courses so far worked for corporate growers such as Grocorp Pacific, Eastern Equities, Montana and Carter Holt. Local bodies and horticultural service industry staff had supported Growsafe.

Four trainers conduct Growsafe courses in Hawke’s Bay. Mr Calcinai and John van den Linden operate from Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic; J. Wattie Foods field officer Julie McDougall plans to conduct grower courses later this year, and consultant John Rees, who could not be reached, also conducts courses.

Photo captions –

Mr Calcinai

Mr Scott