September 2006

Poverty and Pesticides: Protecting Health and the

Environment

A NGO perspective

September 2006

• The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) outlines clear goals by world leaders to address poverty reduction, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms. But if current trends continue, there is a risk that many of the poorest countries will not be able to meet many of the MDGs.

• But there is a major gap -- involvement of a key player—namely the poor, their organisations and movements.

• This is true in most of the poverty reductions goals of international development agencies and financial institutions

• The poor should be key players involved in policy formulation and in the implementation of strategies for poverty reduction, including achieving the MDGs.

• Local institutions and processes to facilitate the poor and their organisations to participate in the whole process at all levels and their visions, aspirations and their solutions taken seriously.

September 2006

Genuine Agrarian Reform• In the goal to halve the numbers of hungry and malnourished,

the FAO contends that we are far from meeting the targets. The 2005 MDG Report states that most of the world’s hungry live in rural areas and that hunger tends to be concentrated among the landless or among farmers whose plots are too small to provide for their needs.

• If this is the case, then shouldn’t the immediate response be to provide land to the poor and support to small farmers?

• The poor and their organisations, the peasant organisations have been asserting their right to land for decades. Peasant women who rarely own land are also demanding genuine agrarian reform for women

• And yet their voices are rarely heard and their assertion to this right comes in the face of repression and violence. It is a political struggle, since in many countries there is a lack of equitable distribution of land and a handful control access to this resource.

September 2006

• Agrarian reform that has been taken up successful in some countries shows that with rights to land ensured, peasants have been able to have livelihood security. Research from FAO shows that countries that have equitable, efficient land tenure systems and that have been in the forefront of ensuring property rights for both men and women, have developed faster to achieve higher levels of food security, health and welfare.

• This reform includes the necessary support to ensure their food and economic security. Without right over the land the peasants cannot invest in improving the soil, plan the crops that they will grow, and make long-term plans to improve their economic situation. Their access to credit is also limited due to lack of collateral in the form of property or other assets

September 2006

• The absence of such access to land and resources means that the peasants/ agricultural workers have no say in the kind of agriculture that is being practiced.

• As a consequence of the current food and agricultural production practices, the knowledge, skills and practices that are the basis of ecological agriculture and livelihoods of rural communities have been marginalised.

• The current industrial agriculture which relies on monocultures, pesticides and fertilisers as well as substantial irrigation, is also unsustainable and results in loss of biodiversity, land degradation and reduction of soil fertility.

September 2006

FARM CRISIS: PEASANT INDEBTEDNESS

• In India, between 1995 and 2003, 926,000 farmers are reported to have committed suicide, according to statistics put out by the home ministry. The main causes are said to be indebtedness, crop failure, and other economic and psychological reasons.

• In Thailand, 4.3 million farming families were buried in debt just several years after the adoption of high yielding varieties; now millions of farmers are indebted

• In the Philippines, agriculture is deemed non-lucrative as evidenced by half the rural families living below poverty level.

September 2006

Poverty and Pesticide poisoning One of the major concerns is the use of pesticides within

these systems. The poor are disproportionately affected because of :

• Illiteracy • Lack of capacity• Lack of information• Lack of options• Lack of labels in local language• Lack of protective clothing • Lack of training and information and use

September 2006

Poverty and pesticide use• Farmers and agricultural workers are exposed to

pesticides directly when they are mixing and spraying these pesticides.

• Communities and consumers are insidiously exposed to pesticides through contamination of the soil, air and water or in some countries they are exposed through aerial spraying of pesticides.

• Under reporting of pesticide poisoning is rife• Malnutrition increases the health effects of

pesticide poisoning

September 2006

Reality of pesticide use in developing countries

September 2006

• Aerial spraying

September 2006

September 2006

Repackaged pesticides

•

September 2006

Reality of pesticide use in developing countries

Child labourers and child exposure

Pregnant plantation worker working as a pesticide sprayer

September 2006

Communities are poisoned when living in the vicinity of pesticide producing facilities/factories

for example in Eloor in Kerala, India

September 2006

September 2006

Playing on Playing on the cultural the cultural preferences preferences and/or and/or popular popular culture of culture of communities communities

September 2006

Playing on religious beliefs of communitiesPlaying on religious beliefs of communities

September 2006

Integration of poverty and sound chemical management

• Active participation of leaders in people’s movements – peasants, indigenous peoples, agricultural workers, urban poor, pastoralists, (with equal participation of women) in decision making processes and implementation

• Capacity building and empowerment of the poor to understand the effects of pesticides and to take action

September 2006

Other actions• Halt when use is not possible in conditions in

developing countries (FAO Code)• Under conditions of use in developing countries

WHO Class 1, paraquat and endosulfan are problematic and should be reduced and eliminated.

• Corporate accountability and responsibility• Pesticide assessment based on substitution,

reduction and precaution• Bridging the gap – poor and rich – the need for

agrarian reform and land rights

September 2006

Alternatives: ecological

agriculutre based on biodiversity

Nayakrishi Andolon in Bangladesh have at least 200,000 farmers practising ecological agriculture

GITA PERTIWI, Indonesia works with 10, 000 farmers in Java

Masipag and Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (SIBAT), Inc , Philippines works with a network of farmers

Kudumum (LIESA) works with 20,000 small farmers in Tamilnadu, India