Biniyam Nigussie Edae1*
Bio and Emerging Technology Institute, Ethiopia
*Correspondence: Biniyam Nigussie Edae, PhD, Bio and Emerging Technology Institute, Ethiopia Email: binifs@gmail.com
Received: 03 Nov, 2025; Accepted: 14 Dec, 2025; Published: 22 Dec, 2025.
Citation: Biniyam Nigussie Edae. “Pesticides Use: Benefits and Hazards.” J Nutr Diet Manage (2025):113. DOI: 10.59462/JNDM.3.1.113
Copyright: © Biniyam Nigussie Edae. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unre stricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The assessment of pesticide use is crucial to investigate the benefits and risks. In this review, the benefits and risks of using pesticides will be investigated. Pesticides are widely used in most areas of crop production to minimize infestations by pests, thereby protecting crops from potential yield losses and reductions in product quality. Pesticides play an essential role in ensuring high profits to farmers, providing reliable supplies of agricultural produce at prices that are affordable to consumers, and also improving the quality of produce. Chemical pesticides have been a benefit to nations in their efforts to eradicate insect-borne, endemic diseases, to produce adequate food, and to protect forests, plantations, and fiber. Benefits from pesticide use can accrue to a number of different recipients, not only to farmers or consumers but also to society. There is evidence of both direct and indirect dangers involved in the use of these chemical substances, both for humans and the environment. Much older, non-patented, more toxic, environmentally persistent, and inexpensive chemicals are used extensively in developing nations, creating serious acute health problems and local and global environmental contamination. Although discussions among scientists and the public have repeatedly focused on the real, predicted, and perceived risks that pesticides pose to people and the environment, in reality, nobody will ever know with complete certainty whether a pesticide is safe or not. Thus, a major issue that always arises is whether we are willing to accept the risks of pesticide use in pursuit of the benefits. The most promising opportunity for maximizing benefits and minimizing risks is to invest time, money, and effort into developing a diverse toolbox of pest control strategies that include safe products and practices that integrate chemical approaches into an overall and ecologically based framework, which will optimize sustainable production, environmental quality, and human health.
Keywords
Chemical Pesticide, Crop Protection, Pest Control, Human Health
Pesticide refers to any substance purposely released into the environment for preventing, destroying, repelling, attracting, or controlling pests, including unwanted species of plants or animals. The term pesticide covers a wide variety of compounds including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, molluscicides, nematicides, plant growth regulators and others. Pesticides are applied during the production stage, storage, transport, distribution, and processing of food and feeds. They are also administered to animals for the control of ectoparasites. On the other hand, pesticides include substances used as plant growth regulators, defoliator, desiccant, fruit thinning agents, sprouting inhibitors and substances applied to crops either before or after harvest to protect them from deterioration during transport and storage. Pesticides application has increased agricultural productivity, crop yield, crop protection, affordable food, and increased farmers’ income [1-7]. Pesticides represent widely used chemical substances in agriculture to increase production and quality through controlling pests and pest-related diseases. The widespread use of pesticides is a significant source of air, water, and soil pollution. Pesticides are also very important risk factors on human life, not only affecting health as a result of misuse or accident, but also leaving a lasting harmful impact into the environment [8].
Depending on the chemical structure pesticides can be classified as organochlorines (Endosulfan, Hexachlorobenzene), organophosphates (Diazinon, Omethoate, Glyphosate), carbamic and thiocarbamic derivatives, carboxylic acids and their derivatives, urea derivatives, heterocyclic compounds (Benzimidazole and Triazole Derivatives), phenol and nitro phenol derivatives, hydrocarbons, ketones, aldehydes and their derivatives, fluorine containing compounds, copper-containing compounds, metal organic and inorganic compounds, and natural and synthetic pyrethroids. Ever since the origin of civilization, it has been the major task of man to engage in a continuous endeavor to improve his living conditions. One of the main tasks in which human beings have been engaged is securing relief from hunger [9,10].
The control of insects, weeds, fungi, and other pests of economic or public health is of utmost importance to the government. Pesticides have consistently revealed their worth through increased agriculture productivity, reduced insect-borne, endemic diseases, and protection as well as restoration of plantations, forests, harvested wood products, homes, and fiber. Currently, pesticides are very valuable in developing nations, particularly those in tropical areas looking for an entry in the global economy by providing off-season fresh vegetables and fruits to nations in more temperate weathers. However, these goals cannot be achieved without the increased use of pesticides, mainly insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Ideal pesticides must act selectively against certain pest organisms without adverse effects on non-target organisms. Pesticide use raises a number of environmental worries, including human and animal health hazards. Food products contaminated with toxic pesticides are associated with severe effects on human health [9,11].
More than 95% of sprayed insecticides and herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water, and soil. Pesticide contamination of both surface and ground waters can affect aquatic animals and plants, as well as human health, when water is used for public consumption. The increased use of chemical pesticides has resulted in contamination of the environment and also caused many associated long-term effects on human health. Pesticides have been associated with a wide spectrum of human health hazards, ranging from short-term impacts such as headaches and nausea to chronic impacts like cancer, reproductive harm, and endocrine disruption. Pesticide residues in food and crops are a direct result of the application of pesticides to crops growing in the field, and to a lesser extent, from pesticide residues remaining in the soil [9,12].
Agriculture is the primary source for human food; it provides different kinds of crop production. In 2015, 7.4 billion people called Earth their home. Food production capacity is faced with an ever-growing number of challenges, including a world population expected to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050 and a falling ratio of arable land to population. The world population is increasing by 97 million per year. This explosive increase in world population is mostly in developing countries, and this is where the need for food is greatest, and starvation threatens human life, as FAO estimates that 500 million people are already undernourished. Optimizing crop yields becomes an even more critical factor affecting the availability and affordability of food to meet increasing population demand [13-15].
Plant diseases are major factors that affect crop production. Plant diseases can affect plants by interfering with several processes, such as the absorbance and translocation of water and nutrients, photosynthesis, and flower and fruit development. Infection of plants by pathogens can have serious consequences on plant health, which consequently affects human health. Minimizing this risk requires efficient methods and practices to control pests (Insects, Bacteria, Fungi, Viruses, etc.) [13, 16, 17]. In our global society, there is a place for people to grow and consume organic food, but if all our farmers decided against using farm chemicals, we would soon find ourselves in a grave situation. Without the use of farm chemicals, the production and quality of food would be severely jeopardized, with estimates that food supplies would immediately fall to 30 to 40% due to the ravages of pests. While there are mountains of food in Europe and the US, this represents only 45 days of food supply for the world. Only part of the problem is distribution and the ability to pay for purchases [14].
Modern technology, including the use of pesticides to control insects, weeds, and disease-inducing agents, enables food production to support the world population. The starvation occurring in much of Africa is tragic evidence that the population cannot survive or suffer from severe malnutrition when agricultural systems fail [18].
Mankind depends on agricultural products for food consumption. An increasing population requires significant growth in crop yield to meet essential demand. This aim was achieved through the use of pesticides to protect crops from diseases. Pesticides are toxic by design for organisms that can threaten food products. Their mode of action is by targeting systems or enzymes in the pests that may be similar to the human system and therefore pose risks to human health and the environment as well [13]. Pesticides can be used safely and effectively. But if proper care is not taken, pesticides can harm the environment by contaminating soil, surface, and groundwater, and ultimately kill wildlife. The modern human is constantly exposed to a variety of toxic chemicals, primarily due to changes in lifestyle. The food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the environment we live in are contaminated with toxic xenobiotics. Humans are exposed to such chemicals while still in the womb of the mother. Therefore, human life would be threatened not only directly by pesticides in environment, but indirectly by contaminated food chain [14,19].
Pesticides are commonly used both in domestic and agricultural production to provide crop protection and boost up the yield in agricultural productivity, despite its adverse effects on the ecological environment, human and animal’s health. Pesticide residues are traces easily detected in our environment, especially in water and on crops. Organochlorines, organophosphates, and pyrethroid pesticides have been widely used across Africa continent; its persistence remain stable for many years after their use, which has an impact on the environment. It asserted that Degradation of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in soil ranges from 4-30 years, while other Organophosphate (OPs) may remain stable in soil for many years after their use. Further stressed that OPs, Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), are liposoluble compounds and are capable of bio-accumulating in fatty parts of biota like breast milk, blood, and fatty tissues of animals or humans, which causes serious diseases and is also highly toxic to most aquatic life. Persistent organic pesticide residues are widely distributed in soil, water, and cultivated crops, especially cereals [10,20].
The use of pesticides helped to prevent the death of millions of people by reducing pest populations that carry or transmit diseases, such as malaria, transmitted by infected mosquitoes, the bubonic plague, carried by rat fleas, and typhus, transmitted by both fleas and body lice. Over the years, the widespread use of pesticides has had several benefits. In agriculture, plant protection is essential for providing high-quality food in adequate quantities. Conventional pesticides (Herbicides, Fungicides, Insecticides, Nematicides, and Rodenticides) are chemically-based and have a specific action on target harmful organisms. Active chemical ingredients are combined with water, solvents, and emulsifiers, in addition to other chemical and no chemical ingredients to repel, kill, and control pests in the garden or the environment [7,21].
A plentiful supply of fresh products is vital for a healthy population. Numerous scientific studies demonstrate the health benefits of regularly eating a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, and consumers are increasingly aware of these benefits. Agricultural productivity is a key to ensuring that this demand can be met at an affordable price, and crop protection products help increase productivity and usable crop yields. The crop protection industry’s primary aim is to enable farmers to grow an abundant supply of food in a safe manner and prevent costs from increasing. Food production processes benefit from continual advancements in agricultural technologies and practices; in fact, a population now nearly twice as large has more food available per capita than 40 years ago. Tools such as herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides reduce crop losses both before and after harvest, and increase crop yields [14,22-24].
Increasing food quality and quantity is one of the major benefits of pesticides. Crop protection technologies allow producers to increase crop yields and the efficiency of food production processes. Up to 40 percent of the world’s potential crop production is already lost annually because of the effects of weeds, pests, and diseases. These crop losses would be doubled if existing pesticide uses were abandoned. In addition, pesticides allow consumers to consume high-quality products that are free of insect blemishes and insect contamination. Crop protection chemicals that reduce, eliminate, and prevent insect damage allow consumers to purchase high-quality products free of insect fragments [14, 22-24].
A decrease price of food is another major benefit of pesticide use. Because the use of pesticides improves crop yields, crop protection technologies also impact the cost of food. Without crop protection chemicals, food production would decline, many fruits and vegetables would be in short supply, and prices would rise. Helping to keep food prices in check for the consumer is another large benefit of pesticides [14,22-24].
Pesticide use plays a major role in human health protection. Pesticides are the most effective substances to eliminate insects that cause human diseases such as Malaria, Dengue fever, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus loom large. Also, human health is supported against insect and fungi-borne carcinogens, like aflatoxins, which are progressing to hepatic and other cancers [14,22-24]. Pesticide use can also play a major role in environmental protection. Other positive aspects of crop protection chemicals, in responsible and safe use, include household pest control, control of vegetation in industry and infrastructure, and recreation and protection of areas against environmental pests like noxious weeds, feral animals, etc., which cause land degradation [14,22-24].
The beneficial effects of agrochemicals’ use are associated with increased plant yields, an increase in animal crops, and less spoilage during storage. Pesticides are an economical way of controlling pests. In 2004, it was pointed out that there is a fourfold return on every dollar a farmer spends on pesticides. A suitable pesticide is available for almost all pest problems with variation in type, activity, and persistence. Using pesticides will reduce diseases and increase food production with a higher supply and variety of high-quality products at reasonable prices. Nutritious free food, that is, foods that are free of pesticides or disease-causing agents, and flowers that have not been damaged by pests, cannot be obtained without the use of pesticides. Pesticides are often used to stop the spread of pests in imports and exports, preventing weeds in gardens and protecting houses and furniture from destruction [25]. Modern agricultural inputs, such as inorganic fertilizer and pesticides potentially help farmers boost productivity significantly. This is a goal critical to structural transformation and poverty reduction. There is a strong, causal relationship between the use of modern agricultural inputs and crop yields and, subsequently, economic growth. The prospective gains from pesticide use are considerable. Pesticides’ use reduces the incidence of harmful pests, which can both directly impact human health (e.g., Aflatoxin), increase labor requirements and severely limit yield amount and quality. Improved yields likely translate into improvements in human health of farming households. Consumers benefit from increased yields through increased food supply, which should reduce prices in areas not well integrated into national and global food markets. Additionally, the release of labor from manual agricultural tasks may contribute to more vibrant and economically diverse rural areas. Furthermore, controlling pests on export crops can mean the geographical containment of pests that could potentially negatively affect other countries’ environments and farming systems [26].
Food is a basic necessity of life, and contaminated food with toxic pesticides is associated with severe effects on human health. Four main groups of pesticides, such as the organochlorine, organophosphate, carbamate, and pyrethroid insecticides, are of particular concern because of their toxicity and persistence in the environment; however, several of the banned pesticides are still used on a large scale in developing countries and continue to pose severe health and environmental problems [14, 27]. Pesticide use raises a number of environmental concerns and human and animal health hazards. Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water, and soil. Pesticides are one of the causes of water pollution, and some pesticides are persistent organic pollutants and contribute to soil contamination. As a result, we are closely exposed to pesticides in the food and water we consume and in the air we breathe. Unfortunately, these chemicals are non-biodegradable, persistent, and get accumulate in the environment and thus into the human food chain. Despite regulatory measures, these compounds continue to be detected in measurable amounts in the ecosystem, including marine life. In addition, pesticide use reduces biodiversity, reduces nitrogen fixation, contributes to pollinator decline, destroys habitat (especially for birds), and threatens endangered species. It also happens that some of the pests adapt to the pesticide and don’t die. What is called pesticide resistance, to eliminate the offspring of this pest, a new pesticide or an increased dose of pesticide. This will cause a worsening of the ambient pollution problem [14].
On the other hand, the human population is exposed to these chemicals primarily through the consumption of pesticide contaminated farm products, leading to long term health hazards. Pesticides may induce oxidative stress, leading to the generation of free radicals and alteration in antioxidant or oxygen free radical scavenging enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutothione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione transferase. Pesticide toxicity can result from ingestion, inhalation, or dermal absorption. Also, many evidences show that pesticides are persistent in fish tissues, adipose tissue, and other organs, including brain cells, nervous system, and endocrine glands, and even breast milk etc. Thus, continued exposure to these chemicals for a long period may result in various diseases listed below [14, 26, 28]:
Infants and children are at great risk from the effects of pesticides at specific age ranges. Several studies suggest that children may be particularly sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of pesticides. There is a potential to prevent at least some childhood cancers by reducing or eliminating pesticide exposure [14, 29].
The use of some pesticides will lead to the reduction of beneficial species such as bees, birds, soil, and aquatic organisms. Applying chemicals on fields can affect animals that interact with the targeted pests. The reduction in these other organisms can result in changes in the biodiversity of an area and affect natural biological balances. Pesticides can affect other areas during application and can cause severe problems in different crops, livestock, waterways, and the general environment, wildlife and fish are the most affected. The use of pesticides may lead to residues in human food. Persistent use of products in agricultural areas can lead to chemicals reaching the underground aquifers, causing ground water contamination. When the same pesticides are overused, the targeted pest can develop resistance to the pesticide. Excessive exposure to pesticides without safe handling procedures and wearing of protective clothing can lead to poisoning. Poisoning risks depend on dose, toxicity, duration of exposure, and sensitivity. Exposure to toxic pesticides can result in health hazards in the form of acute or chronic illnesses [23,25,30-32]. Pesticides can also pollute the environment, after application, from which rural households critically depend and derive livelihoods, indirectly affecting human health. Pesticides used in high amounts or applied at inappropriate times, such as just before rainfall, contribute to chemical run-off and the contamination of drinking water for the surrounding rural population. Pesticides can also damage agricultural soils through the degradation of beneficial soil microorganisms and the sorption or binding of important organic or mineral components; poor soils will inevitably lead to lower harvests [26]. When a pesticide is applied to crops, most of the product is either taken up by plants and animals or is eventually degraded by microbial and other chemical pathways. But some is dispersed to the environment; some is vaporized to be eventually deposited in rainfall, some remains in the soil, while some reaches surface and ground water by runoff or leaching. In this fashion, some persistent products such as organochlorines have been discovered in most environments of the world. Pesticides have long been detected in rainfall and can travel long distances. Pesticides reach water by leaching, run-off, transport on soil particles, and rapid flow though cracked soils and field drains. Most pesticides found in the environment come from surface run-off or leaching. The proportion lost is usually of the order of 0.5 per cent of the amount applied, but can sometimes rise to 5 percent. The early generations of pesticides, the organochlorines, arsenicals, and paraquat, are strongly adsorbed to soil particles and tend only to be lost when the soil itself is eroded [30].
Because of the extensive benefits that man accrues from pesticides, agrochemicals provide the best opportunity to those who juggle with the risk-benefit equations. The economic impact of pesticides on non-target species has been estimated at approximately $8 billion annually in developing countries. What is required is to weigh all the risks against the benefits to ensure a maximum margin of safety. The total cost-benefit picture from pesticide use differs appreciably between developed and developing countries. For developing countries, it is imperative to use pesticides, as no one would prefer famine and communicable diseases like malaria. It may thus be expedient to accept a reasonable degree of risk. Pesticides are a quick, easy, and inexpensive solution for controlling weeds and insect pests in urban landscapes [4].
There is a significant negative effect on the environment and human health, along with the positive pesticide effect in the development of agriculture. Thus, the issue of effect in this case has a dual nature, which on the one hand, is expressed in the potential possibility of harm to humans and the environment, and on the other hand, pests that are also undesirable for humans may be effected as well and in this connection, the effect on them leads to destruction of such objects or reduction of their effect, which is positive. A major challenge for developing countries is the large-scale penetration onto the market of more and more kinds of pesticides that are aggressive to humans and the environment, which is caused by the expansion of trade and economic relations of a nation, an insufficiently protected market [4, 33].
Pesticide toxicity is manifested in either carcinogenic or mutagenic effects, effects on the respiratory, endocrine, immune, and nervous systems. A list of diseases whose contraction is most strongly associated with pesticide effects includes Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, cancer, birth defects, endocrine disruptions, reproductive problems, asthma, allergies, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, developmental disability in children, etc. The negative pesticide effect is also manifested in a large number of acute poisoning cases, which cause various diseases and deaths worldwide, especially in developing countries. Pesticides can penetrate into the organisms of farm animals and birds with feed and water, and as a result, they can be contained in animal products [12,31,33].
The use of pesticides has been and always will be controversial, unquestionably, in our society. It involves very real and important trade-offs that concern people. It is difficult to get people to understand and accept risk. It is also difficult to get those who ignore risk to acknowledge and respect it. As individuals, we base our beliefs on what we know, and what we know depends largely on our source of information. A person’s knowledge of pesticides, coupled with their own personal values, forms the basis for their stance on the issue [34,35]. Pesticides are poisons and can be hazardous. People are becoming more aware of their danger, and even producers are trying to produce safer chemicals and better application methods. Even the awareness is improving for the risk-benefit ratio side, the job has not been completed yet. Misuses of pesticides still occur. Even if they are used correctly, on the contrary, some pesticides can harm non-targeted living organisms and the environment. Just as the benefits of pesticides are real, so are the risks [36,37].