Regional Pesticide Policies in West Africa
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EmailReports on six countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinée, Mali, and Senegal.
By Steve Haggblade
In response to concerns expressed by ECOWAS on the uneven implementation of regional pesticide policies, FSP West Africa Region team has undertaken fieldwork and analysis for use of pesticide in the region. The reports are now available for six countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinée, Mali, and Senegal.
A Policy Brief summarizes the findings:
- Pesticide markets have grown rapidly in West Africa over the past decade and a half.
- Falling world pesticide prices, together with increasing domestic farm labor constraints and associated pressures to intensify agricultural production, have fueled farmer interest in increasing input use, particularly of herbicides.
- Regulatory capacity has not kept pace with the rapid proliferation of pesticide products, markets and traders.
- As a result, pesticide market growth has led to three emerging regulatory issues:
- Appearance of unregistered and counterfeit products in some markets.
- Uncertainty about pesticide product quality.
- Health and environmental impact, which remains largely unmonitored.
