Barriers to evidence use for sustainability: Insights from pesticide policy and practice

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Abstract

Calls for supporting sustainability through more and better research rest on an incomplete understanding of scientific evidence use. We argue that a variety of barriers to a transformative impact of evidence arises from diverse actor motivations within different stages of evidence use. We abductively specify this variety in policy and practice arenas for three actor motivations (truth-seeking, sense-making, and utility-maximizing) and five stages (evidence production, uptake, influence on decisions, effects on sustainability outcomes, and feedback from outcome evaluations). Our interdisciplinary synthesis focuses on the sustainability challenge of reducing environmental and human health risks of agricultural pesticides. It identifies barriers resulting from (1) truth-seekers’ desire to reduce uncertainty that is complicated by evidence gaps, (2) sense-makers’ evidence needs that differ from the type of evidence available, and (3) utility-maximizers’ interests that guide strategic evidence use. We outline context-specific research–policy–practice measures to increase evidence use for sustainable transformation in pesticides and beyond.

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Most cited references 82

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The global burden of pathogens and pests on major food crops

Serge Savary, Laetitia Willocquet, Sarah Pethybridge … (2019)

Crop pathogens and pests reduce the yield and quality of agricultural production. They cause substantial economic losses and reduce food security at household, national and global levels. Quantitative, standardized information on crop losses is difficult to compile and compare across crops, agroecosystems and regions. Here, we report on an expert-based assessment of crop health, and provide numerical estimates of yield losses on an individual pathogen and pest basis for five major crops globally and in food security hotspots. Our results document losses associated with 137 pathogens and pests associated with wheat, rice, maize, potato and soybean worldwide. Our yield loss (range) estimates at a global level and per hotspot for wheat (21.5% (10.1-28.1%)), rice (30.0% (24.6-40.9%)), maize (22.5% (19.5-41.1%)), potato (17.2% (8.1-21.0%)) and soybean (21.4% (11.0-32.4%)) suggest that the highest losses are associated with food-deficit regions with fast-growing populations, and frequently with emerging or re-emerging pests and diseases. Our assessment highlights differences in impacts among crop pathogens and pests and among food security hotspots. This analysis contributes critical information to prioritize crop health management to improve the sustainability of agroecosystems in delivering services to societies.

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Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers

Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, Kris A.G. Wyckhuys (2019)

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Theory Construction in Qualitative Research

Stefan Timmermans, Iddo Tavory (2012)

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Author and article information

Contributors

Benjamin Hofmann:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5639-098X

benjamin.hofmann@eawag.ch

Bio :

Benjamin Hofmann

is a postdoctoral researcher at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. His research focuses on the roles of evidence, technological expertise, and public and private actors in earth system governance from political science and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Karin Ingold:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8166-1780

karin.ingold@unibe.ch

Bio :

Karin Ingold

is Professor of Policy Studies and Environmental Governance at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Bern. She also leads a research group at the Environmental Social Science Department at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. She is Vice-president of the Oeschger Center for climate change research and focuses in her studies on political decision-making processes, actors, their beliefs and strategies. Her main areas of research include Environmental, Climate Change and Energy Policy.

Christian Stamm:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5888-6535

christian.stamm@eawag.ch

Bio :

Christian Stamm

is a senior scientist and Deputy Head of Department, Environmental Chemistry, at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. His research has strong focus on agriculture and water quality with a broad inter- and transdisciplinary perspective.

Priska Ammann:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8046-2560

priska.ammann@swisstph.ch

Bio :

Priska Ammann

is a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). Her research interests include agricultural health and the sustainable transformation of agricultural systems, as well as the connections between climate change and health.

Rik I. L. Eggen:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2593-9957

rik.eggen@eawag.ch

Bio :

Rik I. L. Eggen

is an adjunct Professor in environmental toxicology at ETH Zürich and deputy director of Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. His research interests include pesticide impact on environmental and human health and mitigation thereof.

Robert Finger:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0634-5742

rofinger@ethz.ch

Bio :

Robert Finger

is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Policy at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Samuel Fuhrimann:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1861-1737

samuel.fuhrimann@swisstph.ch

Bio :

Samuel Fuhrimann

is senior scientific collaborator at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). He conducts research on sustainable transition of agricultural systems and farmer families’ health and well-being and is actively involved in farmer family cohort and intervention studies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Judit Lienert:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-3895

judit.lienert@eawag.ch

Bio :

Judit Lienert

is a senior scientist at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. With a PhD in ecology, today she leads the Cluster Decision Analysis in the Dept. of Environmental Social Sciences. Her research uses inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to integrate scientific evidence and stakeholders’ subjective values. Methodologically, she focuses on problem structuring, behavioral Operational Research, eliciting stakeholder preferences, and uncertainty.

Jennifer Mark: jennifer.mark@fibl.org

Bio :

Jennifer Mark

is a researcher at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland. Her research areas include phytopathology, crop protection, agronomy, and on-farm research.

Chloe McCallum:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7947-0261

cmccallum@ethz.ch

Bio :

Chloe McCallum

is a postdoctoral researcher at the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group at ETH Zürich. Her research interests include farmers’ beliefs, preferences and adoption decisions related to sustainable pesticide practices using surveys and economic experiments.

Nicole Probst-Hensch:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8561-5976

nicole.probst@swisstph.ch

Bio :

Nicole Probst-Hensch

is Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Chronic Disease Epidemiology Unit at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Basel Medical School, Switzerland. She has broad research experience covering several chronic diseases including cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and covering multiple domains related to noncommunicable disease risks.

Ueli Reber:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8036-4493

ueli.reber@eawag.ch

Bio :

Ueli Reber

is a postdoctoral research at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. His research interests include environmental policy, political communication, and computational methods for content and network analysis.

Lucius Tamm: lucius.tamm@fibl.org

Bio :

Lucius Tamm

is head of crop science department at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland. He has more than 25 years plant pathology R&D experience working on cereals, potatoes, grapevine and horticultural crops. He leads FiBL’s R&D activities for the development of fungicides and inducers of resistance and has also been involved in the development of improved registration procedures for novel plant protection products.

Milena Wiget: milena.wiget@eawag.ch

Bio :

Milena Wiget

is a doctoral candidate at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. Her research interests include decision-making and decision processes for solving socio-environmental problems. In her research, she applies methods of Multi-criteria Decision Analysis and Policy Analysis.

Mirko S. Winkler:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7387-3863

mirko.winkler@swisstph.ch

Bio :

Mirko S. Winkler

is a senior epidemiologist at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), an associated institute of the University of Basel, Switzerland. His research activities have two foci: (i) the study of health impacts associated with the development and operation of large infrastructure development projects in sub-Saharan Africa; and (ii) chemical and microbial exposure assessment in the context of small-scale agriculture, climate change and urbanisation.

Lucca Zachmann:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3362-1853

lzachmann@ethz.ch

Bio :

Lucca Zachmann

is a doctoral candidate in the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group at ETH Zürich. His research interests include farmer decision making in viticulture and pomiculture.

Sabine Hoffmann:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6750-8069

sabine.hoffmann@eawag.ch

Bio :

Sabine Hoffmann

is a senior scientist and Deputy Head of Department, Environmental Social Sciences, at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. In her research, she focuses on inter- and transdisciplinary integration and integrative leadership in large research programs.

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Ambio

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Ambio

Title: Ambio

Publisher: Springer Netherlands (Dordrecht )

ISSN (Print): 0044-7447

ISSN (Electronic): 1654-7209

Publication date (Electronic): 17 November 2022

Publication date PMC-release: 17 November 2022

Publication date (Print): February 2023

Volume: 52

Issue: 2

Pages: 425-439

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.418656.8, ISNI 0000 0001 1551 0562, Department of Environmental Social Sciences, , Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ; Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

[2 ]GRID grid.5734.5, ISNI 0000 0001 0726 5157, Institute of Political Science, , University of Bern, ; Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012 Bern, Switzerland

[3 ]GRID grid.5734.5, ISNI 0000 0001 0726 5157, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, , University of Bern, ; Hochschulstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland

[4 ]GRID grid.418656.8, ISNI 0000 0001 1551 0562, Department of Environmental Chemistry, , Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ; Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

[5 ]GRID grid.416786.a, ISNI 0000 0004 0587 0574, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, , Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, ; Kreuzstrasse 2, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland

[6 ]GRID grid.6612.3, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 0642, University of Basel, ; Basel, Switzerland

[7 ]GRID grid.418656.8, ISNI 0000 0001 1551 0562, Directorate, , Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ; Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

[8 ]GRID grid.5801.c, ISNI 0000 0001 2156 2780, Department of Environmental Systems Science, , ETH Zürich, ; Zurich, Switzerland

[9 ]GRID grid.5801.c, ISNI 0000 0001 2156 2780, Agricultural Economics and Policy Group, , ETH Zürich, ; Sonneggstrasse 33, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

[10 ]GRID grid.424520.5, ISNI 0000 0004 0511 762X, Department of Crop Sciences, , FiBL: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, ; Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland

[11 ]GRID grid.6612.3, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 0642, Faculty of Medicine, , University of Basel, ; Basel, Switzerland

[12 ]GRID grid.5801.c, ISNI 0000 0001 2156 2780, TdLab, Department of Environmental Systems Science, , ETH Zürich, ; Universitätstrasse 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Author information

Benjamin Hofmann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5639-098X

Karin Ingold http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8166-1780

Christian Stamm http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5888-6535

Priska Ammann http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8046-2560

Rik I. L. Eggen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2593-9957

Robert Finger http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0634-5742

Samuel Fuhrimann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1861-1737

Judit Lienert http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-3895

Chloe McCallum http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7947-0261

Nicole Probst-Hensch http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8561-5976

Ueli Reber http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8036-4493

Mirko S. Winkler http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7387-3863

Lucca Zachmann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3362-1853

Sabine Hoffmann http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6750-8069

Article

Publisher ID: 1790

DOI: 10.1007/s13280-022-01790-4

PMC ID: 9755407

PubMed ID: 36394771

SO-VID: 2538ea73-2d2c-44da-b60c-3d27c93559fc

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date received : 30 March 2022

Date revision received : 25 April 2022

Date accepted : 29 August 2022

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001711, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung;

Award ID: CRSII5_193762

Award Recipient : Karin Ingold

Funded by: Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Open Access :

Open Access funding provided by Lib4RI – Library for the Research Institutes within the ETH Domain: Eawag, Empa, PSI & WSL.

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology

Keywords: agriculture,evidence,pesticides,policy and practice,sustainability,transformation

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology

Keywords: agriculture, evidence, pesticides, policy and practice, sustainability, transformation

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Barriers to evidence use for sustainability: Insights from pesticide policy and practice

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Most cited references 82

The global burden of pathogens and pests on major food crops

Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers

Theory Construction in Qualitative Research

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