A political ecology of farmers’ exposure to pesticides in Ghana

Abstract

This paper presents a political ecology analysis of pesticide use in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region; a region experiencing the growing uptake of pesticides by farmers. To do this, we pose two questions: (1) What ecological changes are farmers observing as a result of intensive pesticide use?; and (2) What are the bodily lived experiences arising from farmers’ exposure to pesticides? Data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observations across four farming communities in the region. Adopting the analytical frame of political ecology, we demonstrate that intensive use of pesticides is adversely affecting local ecologies, with farmers’ identifying it as driving extinction of some crop varieties as well as killing soil microorganisms, making soil infertile. Farmers also describe experiencing headaches, body itching, dizziness, coughing, blurred vision, skin rashes and body weakness as a result of bodily exposure to pesticides. Our findings draw attention to the ecological and health problems associated with adoption of modern practices of farming in Ghana. We conclude by arguing that the ecological and bodily health impacts of pesticides in Brong Ahafo are best understood by situating them as both socially produced and historically determined.