Poor Management of Chemical Inputs:
Policy Pressures and Policy Options

The policy pressures that contribute to the environmental problems associated with the poor management of chemical inputs

- Economies of scale that encourage the use of a large volume of inputs leading to a large volume of outputs including chemical waste
- The concentration of production and processing close to areas of demand which tend to be highly populated areas, creating problems of waste disposal
- Inappropriate input and output pricing policies including income support schemes and subsidies, in particular subsidies on animal health inputs
- Inappropriate or non-existent regulatory policies that fail to respect local natural resource management and environmental needs
- Inappropriate health and safety policies
- Inappropriate financial policies for various inputs, exchange rate and import/export policies

Policy options that can lessen the use of chemical inputs in these systems are

- Environmental regulation:

- Improvements in waste management - the polluter pays
- Banning or limiting the use of certain chemical inputs
- Regulatory policies to reduce level of chemical waste including safe minimum standards
- Effluent controls

- Zoning policies to encourage relocation away from urban residential areas – establishment of industrial parks with infrastructure to handle chemical wastes
- Development and introduction of Good Management Practices (GMP)
- Adapting pricing, subsidy and taxation policies to ensure recovery of full cost of goods and services, including animal health inputs such as acaricides
- Hypothecation of taxes for use in improving usage and efficiency of production, processing and environmental interactions
- Investment incentives/transitional subsidies to encourage improvements in infrastructure to reduce the level of chemical emissions and encourage processors to move quickly to new minimum standards
- Encouragement of R & D to improve chemical processing technology and improve the efficiency of chemical utilisation and creation of waste.

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