Private Environmental Governance in the Ethiopian Pesticide Supply Chain: Importation, Distribution and Use

Publication date: Available online 18 December 2015 Source:NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences Author(s): Belay T. Mengistie, Arthur P.J. Mol, Peter Oosterveer Agricultural pesticides are important chemicals that are used to mitigate crop damage or loss and improve productivity. However, pesticides may cause negative environmental and human health effects depending on their specific distribution and use. Securing environmental safety and sustainability of pesticide distribution and use is widely seen as an important challenge for pesticide governance. This paper analyses how, why and under what circumstances Ethiopian pesticide supply chain actors deal with (un)safe distribution and use of pesticides and assesses their potential contribution to securing the quality, environmental safety and sustainability of pesticides importation, distribution and use. The framework developed for this is based on sustainable supply chain governance in order to assess the roles of and the interactions between the different chain actors, supporters and influencers. On the basis of field research in Ethiopia among key chain actors (importers, retailers, farmers) we analyse their involvement in three different environmental governance mechanisms: governing material flows of pesticides, managing information on health and environmental safety and providing training and capacity-building services. The study found the organisation of the pesticides supply chain in Ethiopia as atomis...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - Category: Biology Source Type: research