Pest management and environmental justice in a changing climate – the case of Uganda

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

The use and promotion of pesticides has increased rapidly across Africa, along with fast changes in the agricultural sector. However, regulation and quality control is poor and unsafe handling practices and inadequate risk awareness is widespread among smallholder farmers. This situation implies significant risk to human health and environmental sustainability. At the same time, loss of food crops due to pests is a serious barrier for ensuring food security and poverty reduction.

Focusing on Uganda as a case study and through a lens of environmental justice, this objective of this research project is to contribute to a much needed understanding of how pesticide use and governance in a changing agro-political landscape impacts on human health and agricultural sustainability, through a lens of environmental justice. In addition, the project aims at contributing practical strategies to mitigate health and environmental risks related to pesticide use through action research involving farmers and other actors. The project, which builds on methodological pluralism and political ecology as an analytical approach, thereby combines critical and problem-solving research.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date2018/01/012022/08/01

Funding

  • FORMAS, a Swedish research council for sustainable development

UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This project contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

UKÄ subject classification

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
  • Other Agricultural Sciences not elsewhere specified

Free keywords

  • Pesticides
  • Political Ecology
  • environmental justice
  • Crop pests
  • Governance