National conference on ‘Pesticide and Health’

Widespread use of chemical pesticides is a public health problem in many of the low-income countries including Nepal. The issue, though well recognized by stakeholders, has largely remained in a no-man’s land in lack of multisectoral efforts to tackle it. Nepal Public Health Foundation (NPHF) through its CISU-funded project – Farming, Health, and Environment, Nepal (FHEN) – has been working on this multisectoral interface for more than five years. Specifically, it has brought the issue in surface of rational use of pesticides from a public health perspective and pioneered the interventions targeted at multisectoral stakeholders: agriculture and the market force around it, health, education, policy-makers, and consumers.

The National Conference on Pesticide and Health, with the theme Multisectoral Partnership for Healthy farming – Healthy People through reduction of pesticide use is an attempt of the Foundation to provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss and develop integrated plans to ensure better public health through rational use of pesticides in farming. Indeed, this shall be a unique platform where stakeholders from the various sectors – and of all levels (federal, provincial, local) – come together to discourse on the important issue – by sharing their knowledge and experiences.