UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:	Swedish Trade Unions, Global IPM Facility

Affiliation:	- Workers and trade unions - Business and industry

Name of Focal Point:	Pete Hurst, ILO, Email: hurst@ilo.org

Initiative Title:	Agricultural Workers and Integrated Production and Pest Management, Uganda

Internet links:	http://\\faoext06\FTP_Waicent\SD\SDA\SDAR\sard\English GP\EN GP Africa\agricultural_workers-uganda.pdf http://IUF www.iuf.org

Scope:	National:

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: 1998 End:

Lead Institution:	IGOs: IUF and Global Integrated Pest Management Facility

Stakeholders/Partners:	Global Pesticide Project Swedish Trade Unions, Global IPM Facility IGOs: IUF and Global Integrated Pest Management Facility Research Institution: CABI Bioscience

Relevent issues:	- Environmentally sound pest control - Empowering the poor, including women and indigenous people

Objectives/Challenges:

The aim of this initiative is to keep pest populations below economically damaging levels and to restrict pesticide use to amounts that are economically justified and reduce risks to human health and the environment.
Agricultural workers are aware of the fact that chemical pesticides pose risks to their health and that of their families and communities, but they often lack the skills and knowledge to make use of IPPM techniques for weed, insect pest, and disease control on the farms and plantations where they work.
There is no single IPPM technique or programme. Each programme has to be adapted to the particular crop and local growing situation. This means that workers have to go into a field to study how to grow a healthy crop and how to protect it from pests, diseases and weeds by non-chemical means.

Lessons Learned:

Innovative elements - The practice gives agricultural workers knowledge and skills on IPPM so that when instructed by an employer or manager to use a pesticide, they can suggest alternative IPPM techniques that are effective, reduce input costs, and pose less risk to the health of workers and the environment. In addition, if the crop is produced to organic standards, it may be sold at a premium price.
Impacts on natural resource base - Expected: Reduced impact on the natural environment, lack of residues of pesticides in the soil and water.
Impacts on livelihood of the practice users - Expected: Reduction of pesticide use and consequently a reduction in production costs. Lessening the health hazards for the waged agricultural workers and their employers. Improved health and safety of the communities living on the farms.
Other impacts - Expected: Workers have the knowledge and skills on IPPM to collectively bargain with employers to improve health and safety standards at the workplace.
General success factors
• Cooperation with IUF and the Global IPM Facility. The Facility was also willing to fund the training courses
• Waged agricultural workers organized in trade unions Institutional success factors - Institutional support and outreach
Problems remaining to be resolved;
Translation of the IPPM techniques into improved collective bargaining agreements with employers. Ways to up-scale the training.

Policy Options:

The pilot training is ongoing, with a view to expanding it to other unions and countries.

Summary:

This project was based in Uganda, and more precisely in the South of Uganda and East of Kampala. This area is part of a humid and perhumid climatic zone.
Practice category: Fair conditions of employment, Community empowerment
Practice type: Institutional practice for ensuring fair conditions of employment, Institutional practice for empowering rural people, Sector Diseases and pests of animals and plants.
The beneficiaries of the practice are waged agricultural workers organized in trade unions, farmer employers and plantation companies.
The users of the practice are waged agricultural workers organized in trade unions.

Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM) is a way of growing crops that maximizes control of pests by their natural enemies - pests, parasites and pathogens (diseases), integrated with other crop husbandry measures.
Normally, it is only farmers who receive training, especially through an educational method called "Farmer Field Schools" (FFS) who are able to implement IPPM. The FAO has been promoting the use of such techniques through farmer field schools in its country programmes throughout the world.
In 1995, the FAO, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environmental Programme established the Global Integrated Pest Management Facility. This joint programme is housed in the FAO which is the main international agency promoting IPPM worldwide. The IUF is now working with the Global IPM Facility to train agricultural workers in IPPM techniques, using the FFS method.
To ensure that waged agricultural workers receive training in IPPM techniques, pilot courses in FFS, the first ever of their kind, were held for agricultural trade unions in Uganda in 2001. The unions concerned also invited some NGOs and organic farmer organizations to join the courses. The training was given by professional IPPM trainers provided by the Facility. The pilot training is ongoing, with a view to expanding it to other unions and countries.
Equipped with this new knowledge, workers can then negotiate clauses requiring use of IPPM programmes in collective bargaining agreements with employers.