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Toxicologist Halimatou Traoré knew that chemists in
West Africa needed a workshop to train them in the newly acclaimed “QuEChERS”
(pronounced “catchers”) pesticide residue analysis method. Not only would
learning this technique give them a “quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged,
safe” method (the acronym comes from the adjectives) for extracting and
analyzing pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, it would also enhance
their credibility with international standards organizations.
Pesticide Booklets Help Literacy in Rural Mali (pdf)
Researchers funded by a Virginia Tech/USAID program who
set out to teach Malian villagers good pesticide practices found they had
unwittingly created highly prized “readers” in a local language. It happened quite by accident. Under Virginia Tech’s
Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP), a
USAID-funded initiative, Tech researchers
were
helping the government of Mali set up a crop quality assurance program. Part of
such a program is training people in appropriate use of pesticides.
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