The role of agro-input dealer certification in promoting sustainable pest control: insights from Uganda
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Date
2024-01-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
ABSTRACTPesticides are crucial for increasing agricultural productivity, but they have also beenlinked to a range of health and environmental risks. In this paper, we used nationallyrepresentative data from 557 agro-dealers in Uganda to assess the role of agro-dealercertification in improving knowledge and practices related to environmentally-friendly pest control. We found that almost half of the sampled agro-dealers werenot certified or accredited by regulatory bodies, even though this is a prerequisitefor selling pesticides in the country. Results further showed that only 16% of theagro-input shops were selling biopesticide products, largely due to a lack ofawareness, access and demand from farmers. Regression results showed thatcertified agro-dealers were 9–12 percentage points more likely to know aboutbiopesticides and integrated pest management, and 8–10 percentage points morelikely to sell biopesticide products, compared to their non-certified counterparts.Ourfindings imply that agro-dealer certification courses can play an important rolein raising knowledge and stimulating the supply of environmentally-benign pestcontrol products. We identified regulatory enforcement, a decentralizedcertification system and agro-dealer associations as some of the potentialpathways for incentivising compliance with certification requirements, therebypromoting lower-risk pest control products and strategies
Description
Keywords
Agro-input dealers;certification; biopesticides;integrated pestmanagement; Uganda
Citation
Tambo, Justice A., Keith A. Holmes, Caroline Aliamo, et al. 'The Role of Agro-Input Dealer Certification in Promoting Sustainable Pest Control: Insights from Uganda', International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, vol. 22/no. 1, (2024), .