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

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.