Measuring pesticide ecological and health risks in West African agriculture to establish an enabling environment for sustainable intensification

TLDR

Without progress in pesticide risk management, West African agriculture remains a weak foundation for sustainable intensification or adoption of new crop technologies. The study outlines a pesticide risk assessment approach based on surveys of pesticide use across West Africa. Analyses are presented at regional, national, and village levels to support regulatory advances and local risk communication. The new models show severe human health risks from dermal exposure that would require up to three weeks of field entry restrictions, widespread ecological threats to terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, and significant risks to regional biodiversity, underscoring the need for regulatory action.

Abstract

We outline an approach to pesticide risk assessment that is based upon surveys of pesticide use throughout West Africa. We have developed and used new risk assessment models to provide, to our knowledge, the first detailed, geographically extensive, scientifically based analysis of pesticide risks for this region. Human health risks from dermal exposure to adults and children are severe enough in many crops to require long periods of up to three weeks when entry to fields should be restricted. This is impractical in terms of crop management, and regulatory action is needed to remove these pesticides from the marketplace. We also found widespread risks to terrestrial and aquatic wildlife throughout the region, and if these results were extrapolated to all similar irrigated perimeters in the Senegal and Niger River Basins, they suggest that pesticides could pose a significant threat to regional biodiversity. Our analyses are presented at the regional, national and village levels to promote regulatory advances but also local risk communication and management. Without progress in pesticide risk management, supported by participatory farmer education, West African agriculture provides a weak context for the sustainable intensification of agricultural production or for the adoption of new crop technologies.