Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy

Steven Haggblade and Amadou Diarra. October 2017. Trends in West African Pesticide Markets. Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Brief 49. East Lansing: Michigan State University

KEY FINDINGS

• Pesticide markets have grown rapidly in West Africa over the past decade and a half.
• Falling world pesticide prices, together with increasing domestic farm labor constraints and associated pressures to intensify agricultural production, have fueled farmer interest in increasing input use, particularly of herbicides.
• Regulatory capacity has not kept pace with the rapid proliferation of pesticide products, markets and traders.
• As a result, pesticide market growth has led to three emerging regulatory issues:                                                                                                             1. Appearance of unregistered and counterfeit products in some markets.
     2. Uncertainty about pesticide product quality.
     3. Health and environmental impact, which remains largely unmonitored.