‘Corrupt pesticides entered Sudan’: Plant Administration

More than 1,500 tons of outdated pesticides have entered Sudan, according to the General Administration of Plant Protection. Khidir Jibril, the Director of the Administration, holds the responsibility of the entry of the pesticides to the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Sudan. He pointed to the fees imposed by the state on the agricultural inputs, which have led to a rise in the prices of registered and approved pesticides. He claimed this encouraged the entry of corrupt pesticides. ‘Rise in cancer cases’ The Director of the Pesticide and Toxicology Administration at the University of El Gezira said earlier that hundreds of thousands of tons of pesticides have disappeared from El Gezira state. The Dean of the National Cancer Institute in Wad Madani, El Gezira, revealed a rise in the number of cancer patients which visited the institute. Dafallah Abu Idris stated that the hospital receives “70 patients a day, which include 12 cancer cases”. File photo: Farmers apply pesticides on their land.