PROJECT ASSESSMENTS - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 154

4) Interactions between research and decision makers, both in The Netherlands and
the South
It has been planned to organize a State of the System workshop in The Netherlands
to improve the interaction between researchers and policymakers in The Hague. In
the morning the research findings can be disseminated to all relevant Dutch stake-
holders who are invited for these workshops, while in the afternoon the stakeholders
can discuss the relevance and implications of these results among themselves and
report back their findings to the whole group which can be followed by a general
discussion to distil the general consensus.
5) Which insights were gained by employing a multi-disciplinary methodology that
would have been missed by disciplinary research?
To my opinion it is impossible to assess the risks of pesticides not using a multi-
disciplinary approach. Interviewing techniques are needed to obtain data on pesticide
usage and an assessment of pesticide marketing and registration is needed to obtain
drivers for transition towards rational pesticide use. The questionnaire on attitude
towards pesticide usage and importance of pesticides in terms of costs and infor-
mation is needed to focus dissemination strategies.
G) Unfinished business and future challenges
1) Which important things remain to be done that could not be achieved by the
project?
Validation of the PRIMET risk assessments by field measurements and capacity
building of local pesticide regulators.
2) Which important challenges in the area of RDSA in the tropics are there in the
near future (say 5 to 10 years)?
See F1 and G1. In terms of pesticide risk assessment the up-scaling of these risks to
a watershed level is a real challenge. This is needed because now it is not known to
what extent the use of pesticides on one farm influences other farms. In Thailand for
instance we visited a biological farm in which many pesticide residues were measured
in the water.
3) What type of research could contribute to addressing these challenges?
A combination of experimental research, modelling and development of training
programs. The advantage being that much can be learned from the research pro-
gramme 416 'Environmental risks and emission reduction of pesticides' of the
Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.