Evidence-based Transformation in Pesticide Governance (TRAPEGO)

Background

To simultaneously achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda in areas such as Biodiversity Conservation, Food Production and Consumption, a fundamental transformation in land use and agricultural production seems indispensable. Different interests, needs, and priorities render this task a real challenge. So the general question arises: how can we achieve successful sustainable transformation in areas of societal, economic, and environmental trade-offs?
To answer this question, we focus on pesticide use in agriculture in Switzerland; a cross-cutting theme where interests related to agricultural production are challenged by human and environmental health concerns. By now, a large body of scientific literature exists about pesticide exposure and effects for humans and the environment. There also exist national and international policies and practices in how to reduce risks related to pesticide use, but still the negative externalities cannot be fully internalized yet. In this research, we follow the basic assumption that systematic, targeted, and timely evidence and information about pesticide exposure and risks, about alternative farm practices and policies has an impact on peoples’ attitudes towards pesticide use and regulation.

Objectives

The overarching goal of this project is to assess the potential for sustainable transformation in Swiss agriculture in order to internalize negative externalities that stem from pesticide use. This is achieved through the continuous and structured exchange between the different research teams of this grant and via three major objectives achieved by applying different research approaches:

1. Targeted evidence: evidence pathways and what type of evidence triggers selected stakeholders’ attitudes;
2. Reduction of sectoral trade-offs: a sound set of within- and across-sectoral and feasible policy and management options in pesticide regulation and practices, identified in focus groups, through modelling and multi-criteria decision-analysis;
3. Assessment of innovation potential: the potential for risk-minimized pesticide use strategies in future Swiss agriculture and under different scenarios.

Project partners

This is an interdisciplinary project and spans across different institutions in Switzerland. This involves the University of Bern, EAWAG, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the AECP Group of ETH Zurich.

Research of the AECP Group

The main focus of the research of the AECP Group in this project is on farm-level decisions in the context of pest management. This includes a focus on pesticide use but also related choices on production systems, preventive measures, crops and technology. We will identity the role of new evidence, e.g. on environmental and human effects of pesticides as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of alternative farm practices, on farmers’ behavior. We will use empirical analysis based on surveys and experiments as well as existing farm-level datasets. The project focusses on Swiss agriculture. Moreover, the AECP Group will be involved in systematic reviews and research on future innovation potential to reduce risks of pesticide use.

Contact

For the AECP Group: Prof. Robert Finger (). For the Project at large: Prof. Dr. Karin Ingold ()

Publications:

Möhring, N., Ingold, K., Kudsk, P., Martin-Laurent, F., Niggli, U., Siegrist, M., Studer, B., Walter, A., Finger, R. (2020). Pathways for advancing pesticide policies. Nature Food 1, 535–540. external page >>

Finger, R., Möhring, N. (2022). The adoption of pesticide-free wheat production and farmers’ perceptions of its environmental and health effects . Ecological Economics. 198, 107463 external page >>

Zachmann, L., McCallum, C., Finger, R. (2024). Determinants of the adoption of fungus-resistant grapevines: Evidence from Switzerland. In Press. external page >>

Zachmann, L., McCallum, C., Finger, R. (2024) Spraying for the Beauty: Pesticide Use for Visual Appearance in Apple Production. Agricultural Economics 55(4): 621-638 external page >>

Zachmann, L., McCallum, C., Finger, R. (2023). Data on Swiss grapevine growers’ production, pest management and risk management decisions. Data in Brief 51 109652 external page >>

Zachmann, L., McCallum, C., Finger, R. (2023). Farm-level data on production systems, farmer- and farm characteristics of apple growers in Switzerland. Data in Brief 50 109531 external page >>

Hofmann, B, Ingold, K., Stamm, C. , Ammann, P., Eggen, R., Finger, R., Fuhrimann, S., Lienert, J. Mark, J., McCallum, C., Probst-Hensch,N., Reber, U., Tamm, L., Wiget, M., Winkler, M., Zachmann, L., Hoffmann, S. (2023). Barriers to evidence use for sustainability: Insights from pesticide policy and practice. AMBIO 52, 425–439 external page >>

Finger, R., Zachmann, L., McCallum, C. (2023). Short supply chains and the adoption of fungus-resistant grapevine varieties. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 45(3): 1753-1775 external page >>

Zachmann, L., McCallum, C., Finger, R. (2023). Nudging farmers towards low-pesticide practices: Evidence from a randomized experiment in viticulture. Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2(3): 497-514 external page >>

Blogs

Finger & Möhring (2022) external page Die von Landwirten erwarteten positiven Effekte durch den Verzicht auf Pflanzenschutzmittel für Mensch und Umwelt sind zentral für die Entscheidung pestizidfreien Weizen anzubauen

Karin Ingold (2021) external page Trapego - Transformation in Pestizid Governance

Spraying for the beauty: Kosmetische Pflanzenschutzmittelanwendungen in der Tafelapfelproduktion external page https://agrarpolitik-blog.com/2024/06/05/spraying-for-the-beauty-kosmetische-pflanzenschutzmittelanwendungen-in-der-tafelapfelproduktion/

Schweizer Winzerinnen und Winzer werden die Fläche von robusten Rebsorten in den nächsten 10 Jahren deutlich erhöhen external page https://agrarpolitik-blog.com/2024/05/10/schweizer-winzerinnen-und-winzer-werden-die-flache-von-robusten-rebsorten-in-den-nachsten-10-jahren-deutlich-erhohen/

Kann ‘Nudging’ den Anbau von pilzwiderstandsfähigen Rebsorten beeinflussen? external page https://agrarpolitik-blog.com/2023/09/25/kann-nudging-den-anbau-von-pilzwiderstandsfahigen-rebsorten-beeinflussen/

Kurze Lieferketten und der Anbau pilzwiderstandsfähiger Rebsorten external page https://agrarpolitik-blog.com/2023/01/12/kurze-lieferketten-und-der-anbau-pilzwiderstandsfahiger-rebsorten/

Hürden für eine evidenzbasierte Pflanzenschutzmittelpolitik und -praxis external page https://agrarpolitik-blog.com/2022/11/25/hurden-fur-eine-evidenzbasierte-pflanzenschutzmittelpolitik-und-praxis/