Les pratiques phytosanitaires des producteurs de légumes de l'île Maurice: Impacts et perspectives de changement

Abstract

The use of pesticides for pest control has an impact on both environment and human health. In 2015, the Mauritian government expressed the wish to develop organic farming which further spiked the interest of the local community following the detection of pesticides residues in samples sourced from different vegetable markets across the Island. But to what extent can producers respond to this request from the local society? Given that production methods were poorly documented, we surveyed 298 vegetable growers (beans, cabbages, tomatoes, potatoes, cucurbits, etc.) in order to analyze their phytosanitary practices and evaluate their impact on environment. The purpose of this survey is to provide answers to the following questions: How do producers actually use pesticides? What constraints do they face? Producers are rather old (60% are over 50 years old) and few have basic training which is rarely specific to agriculture. Moreover, almost two-thirds of the respondents do not own the land they cultivate which in turn leads them to adopt a risk averse position and focus on maximising their gains - monetary or otherwise - from their plot over a span of time. The majority of producers have recourse to preventive treatments to protect their crops against the numerous pests identified. Between 11 and 53 treatments per year are thus carried out depending on the crop rotation patterns. Nearly 60 insecticides and fungicides are commonly used by producers. Phyto'Aide a tool which aims at facilitating the decision-making process, allowed us to evaluate, ex ante, the risk of transferring these substances to the environment. It turned out that risks are important for all pesticides because good phytosanitary practices are inadequately, if at all, followed by most producers. Under these conditions, new strategies for crop protection against pests are needed. We propose in this article different clues for improvement but also a strategy to assist these producers in responding to society's demand for a safe and healthy production.