Causes and Consequences of Increasing Herbicide Use in Mali

Haggblade, Steven; Smale, Mélinda; Kergna, Alpha; Thériault, Véronique; Assima, Amidou

doi:10.1057/s41287-017-0087-2

Cited by 28 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Adesina et al 1994;Tippe et al 2017) therefore cannot be generalized. On the contrary, herbicides appear to be generally cheaper than wages, as shown in Ethiopia (Tamru et al 2017), and in Mali where the cost of applying herbicides was less than half the cost of hand weeding (Haggblade et al 2017b). The comparison between herbicide and hand weeding costs seem to be country specific however.…”

Section: Herbicide Products: Availability and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This in turn points to differences in capacities of countries to monitor and regulate pesticide developments at their markets. It has recently been observed that such regulatory capacities of African countries cannot always keep pace with the influx of new herbicide brands, imported from Asia (Haggblade et al 2017b;Tamru et al 2017), and this again raises concerns with respect to health and environmental safety.…”

Section: Herbicide Products: Availability and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Globally, innovations in herbicide formulations have been seemingly non-existent since the 1990s (Duke 2012), resulting in an overall low diversity of herbicide formulations even in industrial, developed countries (Davis and Frisvold 2017). Although some recent developments have been noted that point to a renewed interest in herbicide innovations, potential new formulations will likely be much more expensive than existing ones (Haggblade et al 2017b). The marginal attainable profits for the agro-industry in rural Africa, also do not attract innovative private investments in this area (Demont et al 2009) and the regional herbicide market is not likely to expand and diversify with already available herbicide formulations in the near future either.…”

Section: The Status Quo Of Herbicides In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Status quo of chemical weed control in rice in sub-Saharan Africa

et al. 2019

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If future rice production is to contribute to food security for the increasing population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), effective strategies are needed to control weeds, the crop's fiercest competitors for resources. To gain better insights into farmers' access to, and use of, herbicides as part of weed control strategies, surveys were conducted in key rice production locations across SSA. Farm surveys were held among 1965 farmers across 20 countries to collect data on rice yields, farmer's weed management practices, herbicide use, frequencies of interventions and information sources regarding herbicides. Markets were surveyed across 17 countries to collect data on herbicide availability, brand names and local prices (converted to US$ ha −1 ). Herbicides are used by 34% of the rice farmers in SSA, but adoption ranges from 0 to 72% across countries. Herbicides are more often used by men (40%) than by women (27%) and more often in irrigated (44% of farmers) than in rainfed lowland (36%) or upland rice growing environments (24%). Herbicides are always used supplementary to hand weeding. Following this combination, yield loss reductions in irrigated lowlands and rainfed uplands are estimated to be 0.4 t ha −1 higher than hand weeding alone. In rainfed lowlands no benefits were observed from herbicide use. Sixty-two percent of the herbicides sold at rural agro-chemical supply markets are unauthorized. These markets are dominated by glyphosate and 2,4-D, sold under 55 and 41 different brand names, respectively, and at relatively competitive prices (below average herbicide price of US $17 ha −1 ). They are also the most popular herbicides among farmers. For advice on herbicide application methods, farmers primarily rely on their peers, and only a few receive advice from extension services (<23%) or inform themselves by reading the product label (<16%). Herbicide application timings are therefore often (38%) sub-optimal. Herbicide technologies can contribute to reduced production losses in rice in SSA. However, through negative effects on crop, environment and human health, incorrect herbicide use may unintentionally counteract efforts to increase food security. Moving away from this status quo will require strict implementation and monitoring of national pesticide regulations and investment in research and development to innovate and diversify the currently followed weed management strategies, agricultural service provision and communications with farmers.

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Section: Herbicide Products: Availability and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Herbicide Products: Availability and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Status Quo Of Herbicides In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Status quo of chemical weed control in rice in sub-Saharan Africa

et al. 2019

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“…According to Monitor Deloitte, 75 per cent of the market for herbicides in Uganda is represented by glyphosate herbicide (Deloitte, 2014). Since its patent expired in 2000, prices in sub-Saharan Africa have fallen with the entry of new brands and availability even in rural areas has increased (Haggblade, Smale, Kergna, Theriault, & Assima, 2017).…”

Section: Glyphosate Herbicidementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Beliefs About Herbicide Quality Correspond with Actual Quality in Local Markets? Evidence from Uganda

Ashour

Gilligan

Hoel

et al. 2018

The Journal of Development Studies

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Adoption of modern agricultural inputs in Africa remains low, restraining agricultural productivity and poverty reduction. Low quality agricultural inputs may in part explain low adoption rates, but only if farmers are aware that some inputs are low quality. We report the results of laboratory tests of the quality of glyphosate herbicide in Uganda and investigate whether farmers' beliefs about the prevalence of counterfeiting and adulteration are consistent with the prevalence of low quality in their local market. We find that the average bottle in our sample is missing 15 per cent of the active ingredient and 31 per cent of samples contain less than 75 per cent of the ingredient advertised. Farmers believe 41 per cent of herbicide is counterfeit or adulterated. Beliefs are significantly correlated with quality at the local market level, but beliefs remain inaccurate, adjusting for only a fraction of actual differences in quality. Price is also significantly correlated with quality in local markets, but prices also adjust for only a fraction of quality differences. Although, like fertiliser and hybrid maize seed, herbicide in Uganda is low quality, herbicide use is substantially higher.

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“…What has been less considered within the debate is that the use of glyphosate provides several benefits to farmers as well as society. The technology simplifies weed management, highly appreciated by farmers, reduces environmental damage in no‐till agriculture due to reduced soil erosion and as alternative weed management strategies often rely on herbicides with a higher environmental impact quotient, reduces greenhouse gas emission due to less tillage, and can reduce herbicide use on the following crop . For sure, there are costs, such as the evolution of glyphosate resistant weeds, requiring more appropriate weed management strategies, however not unique to glyphosate but a general attribute of herbicides, but hardly justifying a ban from an environmental, as well as economic point of view …”

Section: Regulating Pest Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective: regulation of pest and disease control strategies and why (many) economists are concerned

Wesseler

2018

Pest Management Science

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Pests and diseases are a continuous challenge in agriculture production. A wide range of control strategies have been and will continue to be developed. New control strategies are in almost all countries around the world assessed prior to approval for use in farmers' fields. This is rightly so to avoid and even reduce negative effects for human health and the environment. Over the past decades the approval processes have become increasingly politicized resulting in an increase in the direct approval costs and the length in approval time without increasing the safety of the final product. This reduces the development of control strategies and often has negative human health and environmental effects. Possibilities exist for improvements. They include reducing approval costs and approval time by streamlining the approval process and substituting approval requirements by strengthening ex-post liability. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

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Causes and Consequences of Increasing Herbicide Use in Mali

Cited by 28 publications

References 22 publications

Status quo of chemical weed control in rice in sub-Saharan Africa

Status quo of chemical weed control in rice in sub-Saharan Africa

Do Beliefs About Herbicide Quality Correspond with Actual Quality in Local Markets? Evidence from Uganda

Perspective: regulation of pest and disease control strategies and why (many) economists are concerned

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