Using gas chromatography—electron capture detector protocol, pesticide residue levels on four common vegetables (cabbage, carrot, lettuce, and tomatoes) consumed in Ho Municipal, Ghana, were investigated. A total of 5 kg each of the vegetables were randomly sampled in triplicate and from three different markets. Organochlorine pesticides, including residues of γ-HCH, δ-HCH, heptachlor, aldrin, p, p’-DDT, o, p’-DDT and p, p’-DDE detected in vegetables sampled were above recommended EU MRL. Lettuce recorded the highest aldrin (1.23 mg/kg) as well as γ-HCH (0.013 mg/kg) residue levels, while heptachlor (1.05 mg/kg) and δ-HCH (0.23 mg/kg) were highest for cabbage. Maximal residues of p, p’-DDT (1.194 mg/kg) and p, p’-DDE (0.147 mg/kg) were found in tomatoes. Though consumption of these vegetables does not currently pose significant health risk to both adults and children, consumers should be careful as residues could accumulate and pose chronic health hazards. Hence, there is a need for constant surveillance to regulate pesticide use in vegetable farming.

There are discrepancies regarding the effectiveness of enhanced efficiency nitrogen (N) fertilizer (EENF) products on ammonia loss from unincorporated, surface applications of urea-based fertilizers. Soil properties and management practices may account for the differences in the performance of EENF. However, few studies have investigated the performance of urea- and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN)-based EENF on soils with contrasting properties. Controlled-environment incubation experiments were conducted on two soils with different properties to evaluate the efficacy of urea and UAN forms of EENF to minimize ammonia volatilization losses. The experiments were set up as a completely randomized design, with seven treatments replicated four times for 16 days. The N treatments, which were surface-applied at 134 kg N ha⁻¹, included untreated urea, untreated UAN, urea+ANVOL^TM (urease inhibitor product), UAN+ANVOL^TM, environmentally smart nitrogen (ESN^®), SUPERU^® (urease and nitrification inhibitor product), and urea+Excelis^® (urease and nitrification inhibitor product). In this study, urea was more susceptible to ammonia loss (24.12 and 26.49% of applied N) than UAN (5.24 and 16.17% of applied N), with lower ammonia volatility from soil with a pH of 5.8 when compared to 7.0. Urea-based EENF products performed better in soil with a pH of 5.8 compared to the soil with pH 7.0, except for ESN, which was not influenced by pH. In contrast, the UAN-based EENF was more effective in the high-pH soil (7.0). Across both soils, all EENFs reduced cumulative ammonia loss by 32–91% in urea and 27–70% in UAN, respectively, when compared to their untreated forms. The urea-based EENF formulations containing both nitrification and urease inhibitors were the least effective among the EENF types, performing particularly poorly in high-pH soil (pH 7.0). In conclusion, the efficacy of EENF is dependent on soil pH, N source, and the form of EENF. These findings underscore the importance of tailoring EENF applications to specific soil conditions and N sources to optimize N use efficiency (NUE), enhance economic returns for producers, and minimize environmental impacts.