THE SOCIOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF PESTICIDE USE AND HEALTH RISKS OF POTATO PRODUCTION IN CARCHI, ECUADOR1
Verónica Mera-Orcés.
1Paper prepared for presentation at the 2001 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community, Rio de Janeiro-Brazil (Octubre 6-8, 2001)
Keywords
Pesticides, Pesticide intoxication, Social Dynamics, Gender, Agricultural Practices and Environmental Change, Perceptions, Health
Abstract
Modernisation of potato production in the Ecuadorian highlands is related to an intensive use of pesticides. This study was aimed to determine the influence of household arrangements, local institutions and social differentiation in the management of production and pesticide use. Social and environmental information was gathered by means of ethnographic methodologies and discourse analysis tools. This studied determined that potato production involves to all household members and generates occupational risks, but also household level accidents. Children and teenagers were identified as the group more vulnerable to intoxication with pesticides. Four social dimensions that integrate pesticides in the local social dynamics were determined: health-beliefs, gender identity, social identity, and economical progress reliance by means of potato production. Intense potato production and comoditisation of nature is contributing to a progressive social stratification, which is causing that a group of peasant households emerges as the poorest group and vulnerable to occupational risks by chronic pesticide exposure.
The Situation
The Andes of Ecuador has been classified as a centre of genetic diversity of potato (Brush, 1999) and still is an important crop and foundation of the Andean diet. Modernisation of potato production in the Andean region is related to fast changes towards high-input commoditised production systems and complex knowledge networks. As a result, the region is confronted with an increasing social change and several environmental problems, especially related to pesticide overuse. During the last years, the northern Province of Carchi has become an important potato producer in the country, where specialised farmers cultivate nearly 40% of national production on only 25% of the area (Crissman et al, 1998). Pesticides are the technological keys of potato agricultural modernisation and are considered essential to maintain production. Recent studies have demonstrated that in Carchi, where the farming system combines potato and dairy production, current methods of potato cultivation exhibit the heaviest pesticide use in the Andes and at large in the country (Crissman et al, 1998, 1994; Cole et al, 2000). Farmers in deal with many different potato plagues, which are combated by means of several pesticide ‘cocktails’. Among others, the insecticide carbofuran, used extensively by potato farmers, is blamed of extremely high neurobehavioral toxicity (Crissman et al, 1998, Cole et al, 1998; Cole and Mera-Orcés, 2001). Potato production in the zone is regarded as a male activity, this view is shared by extensionists, agricultural and health researchers. This is also what farmers (female and male) say at once (Mera-Orcés, 2000).
The Institutional Situation
The use of carbofuran in granulate form is internationally allowed because it is not persistent in the environment, and in developed countries the applications are normally done with proper human protection. However, in developing countries pesticides are usually applied without the necessary precautions. Additionally, in Ecuador like other countries, there are many laws that in theory defend the human health and the well-being of society, but t
here is no institution with the power to implement the law: to regulate pesticide quality and importations. Also there are many c
ontradictions in practice caused by powerful groups with economic interests and strong political connections.
Description of the study place
San Pedro” is a community of Montúfar Canton in Carchi Province. The community is located at 3500 m above see level. By means of a cobblestone path, the community is connected to the Pan-American Highway, which crosses the country from North to South; it takes half an hour by car from San Pedro to San Gabriel (which is the administrative seat in the Canton and an important market).
The farming system in the community principally combines potato production and pasture for dairy purposes. However other crops such as carrot, vetch, maize and green bean are cultivated too. There are around 310 families, but the number of households is always changing due to the high mobility of the inhabitants. Small farms dominate land ownership on San Pedro. Generally, land units tend to be smaller than 10 ha. Land division is arranged mainly by means of land-sales, inheritances, invasions and land-hand-over. When people speak over “their land”, they usually refer to several and different plots.
Methodology
I have made an emphasis on people-oriented approaches (Leach et al, 1999; Berkes et al, 1997; Long, 1997) which focuses on the resource producer and user rather than on the resource itself. Thus, I have focused on potato production institutions, which involve patterns of behaviour among individuals concerning production and household arrangements. This approach permitted me to understand the way resources are managed, but also forms that certain actors are excluded from resources and the way some face health risks. Shared norms and ideas about health were considered as sources of social identification and as social constructions (Berkman et al, 2000), in the extent that both individuals and groups develop ideas about disease and well being.
Throughout the data collection and analysis a gender sensitive approach was followed, by using a flexible ‘gender analysis framework’. This was crucial to understand the integration of household with production dynamics.
After a first stage of the fieldwork, in which open interviews were carried out to get a general situation perspective and to determine the key actors, semi-structured interviews were carried out with key informants (n=21) determined with a purposive or judgement sample. The selection of informants was based on land tenure differences: Households with total area plots of 5 ha or more (n=3), with total plots area of less than 5 ha (n=13) and households with no land (n=5) were selected. Moreover in every group a household where a female farmer controls the farm production was included. With 10 key informants (6 men and 4 women) I conducted an unstructured questionnaire for in-depth oral histories, in order to understand their point of view regarding health, gender relations, changes in their activities. A discourse-based analysis tool was used in order to understand the contrast between what was said among what was observed. Especial attention was paid in the ways in which people reflect on forms of self-identification.
Finally, medical reports and statistics from the main hospital of the zone were revised. There, two kinds of studies were made: A general quantitative analysis of the hospitalisations registered during 1999, and a content analysis of the reports’ texts on pesticide intoxication (from 1997 to 1999). In the Political Intendancy, a general quantitative and a content analysis were made of the reports on abrupt deaths caused by pesticide (from 1997 to 1999).
Results
Potato Production Institutions and risk
Farmers in San Pedro are commercially oriented and they follow several social arrangements concerning potato production and farm labour. In any case household members entail an important and free source of labour. Since potato cultivation is laboured intense, it is common that capitalised farmers contract workers. Wages for these workers are paid on a daily basis, except during the harvest, when the payments are for every bag of harvested potatoes.
Sharecropping is a common institution in the community and is a way to share risks as well. It is important to realise that potato production is a risky activity because several diseases can destroy the entire crop and fluctuation in potato prices can generate high economical losses. Various resource inputs are negotiated in the sharecropping arrangements. The final division of benefits is divided depending on initial arrangements. Many farmers are involved in different sort of arrangements at the same time and are strategies to deal against uncertainty. Therefore, capitalised farmers have more possibilities to diversify their strategies, while peasants with no land or capital are dependent on their daily wage.
Land renting is an arrangement that is usually utilised by capitalised peasants who decided to take the risks and possible benefits of production by themselves or in an agreement with an associate farmer. An informant who rents land said that the management of his own plot is rather different that the management of the rented one. In his own plot he allowed the “land rests”, which implies that he follows a type of crop rotation. While in the rented land, potato is planted immediately after the harvest. He said that he uses to rent one plot until “there is not possible to get anymore from the land”.
Potato Production Practices and Women’s work
Potato production in the community follows an established sequence of activities. Table 1 lists production activities according to sex. This must be seen as a generalisation, because some households could have individual differences, based on family’s life cycle, disposability of capital and land property.
Although there is not an explicit description of children’s activities in table 1, it was corroborate that girls help their mothers and sisters, while boys help their fathers and brothers. Generally men earned 20% more than women per daily wages did, even if both are doing the same activities.
Current literature says that potato farming in this part of Ecuador is predominantly a male activity, opinion that is certain if the analysis considers one or some links in the production chain. Participation of women in farm activities and in commercial potato production has been overlooked in former studies. This has resulted in an incomplete knowledge of the farm and production arrangements, together with a lack of recognition of the importance of female work in productive activities and roles. Thus, conventional studies in the zone resemble those described by Boserup’s ‘male farming systems’ (Boserup, 1970), in the extent that have focused on male tasks and narratives.
In some households farm production as a whole is managed by women. This especially happens in the absence of the husband, or when the family had several daughters. Female farmers considered that they were not educated in agricultural issues as early as their male family members were. This has imposed an extra difficulty for women to obtain information. Some female informants said that even for their own father or mother, it was ‘natural’ to pass agricultural knowledge to their brothers, but not to them.
Making contrast between ‘what was said and what was observed’: The challenge of gender sensitive methodologies
It was not a simple task to get answers from informants on division of labour per gender. On the contrary, this implied a methodological challenge. Many informants (men and women) had no problem answering general questions (what activity is done generally by whom?). But when the answer was directed in a more personal way (what do you do?), the answers were much more diffuse, incomplete, and especially women tended to give ‘value-judgements’ concerning their work. Many women answered “I do not do anything, I just stay at home”. “My husband is the one who works”. This implied two practical complications. First, to talk about female work, implied to talk about work which was under-valorised by women themselves. Second, potato production has a masculine status and the activity is seen as an “activity for men”. Then, some men feel ashamed that their wives dedicate themselves to potato production activities. Generally female work in this production system is seen as a secondary help and not as a real work. It was quite common that in first conversations I had answers like “my wife does not work at all in potato production”. But, in the afternoon I found this woman harvesting in one plot or another woman working with a hoe or pickaxe. In households where the husband is absent for long periods because he works in another place or because she is widow, potato production is entirely managed by her on top of the domestic tasks. This female farmer will refer to herself first as a mother or as a housewife secondly she will refer to her role as producer. This kind of complexities implied that conversations must be continuos. By means of sensible observation it was possible to reformulate themes of discussion with informants.
Livestock and husbandry in the potato-and-dairy-system
People organise their daily activity based on complex set of duties. Domestic work, crop production, animal husbandry tasks and other farm activities need to be done daily. This diverse spectrum of activities is organised following different patterns in every household. According to Crissman et al (1998a) “Typically low-quality mixed-blood animals are use as milk cows producing for home consumption and sale. Farmers also purchase younger cattle for putting on pasture for later sale”. Primarily, the adult women of the household execute milk production tasks. Female farmers said that they prefer low-quality cows because demand less care and produce fatter milk than high-quality races. This also has a nutritional importance, especially when considering that diet fat input is low. School-aged children work in cattle-caring activities after school time. For grazing, animals are moved systematically through several pasture patches. Peasants with plots already sowed, rent other people’s grasslands after a negotiation to set prices. This is potentially a source of conflict among farmers, especially if negotiations fail.
Milk provides cash income, which is managed by women for daily household necessities. Part of the produced milk is kept for consumption. Cattle could be sold for potato planting, land acquisition, or to pay debts. This is a potential conflict source at household level, especially when the sell is made with out consensus. To sell the cattle sometimes means a significant risk for the family’s subsistence. Also near to the houses small animals are kept (such as guinea pig, chicken, ducks, pigs, etc), which are considered the woman’s property and responsibility. She could sell these animals to supply household needs or in emergencies and are prepared as food in especial occasions.
Food preparation for production activities or the ‘invisible giant’
Moser (1993) influenced gender-analysis frameworks with her theory that women have three roles in society: Productive, Reproductive and Communal. An important contribution of feminist research was to set up the invisibility of those roles of women in agrarian research, but also in public-political debate. Current feminist debate acknowledges the fundamental continuity between women’s unpaid (domestic or reproductive labour) and paid (productive) labour, “neither of which can be satisfactorily understood without referring back to the overarching cultural construction of gender difference (Kabeer and Subrahmanian, 1996; Sage, 1993; Ram, 1991).
In almost all houses there are gas-kitchens, but during potato production periods, women use firewood kitchens. This has two reasons: to reduce costs and to have extra space for big pans. Frequently farmers collect firewood from Andean forest remnants. At times, some buy eucalyptus wood that is sold in markets or by brokers in the community. Cooking during potato production activities is a time consuming activity. Generally, it starts with breakfast preparation. Around 11 a.m. women bring the lunch to the fields. Sometimes this means a heavily loaded two-and-halve-hour walk through hilly terrain. Around mid-afternoon workers take coffee with a snack. Some women made two journeys daily.
Food preparation is one of the resources negotiated in sharecropping arrangements and in the setting of wages. In half-half arrangements, the wives of the farmers involved negotiate among them who will prepare lunch or coffee and on which days. Farmers pay to day labourers 15% less “with food” or 15% more “without food”. The example of food preparation highlights that a categorisation of domestic work as a non-productive activity is rather artificial. Overlooking the way the so called ‘reproductive work’ influences productive activities would mean lack of recognition for the amount of work that this division of labour imposes on women, and the importance of these activities for production.
Pullover knitting is an activity that is especially important in households with no land, or when potato production brought economical losses. Usually a woman (adult or teenager) could knit one or two pullovers per week. There are various merchants who provide women with wool and pay them per pullover. In difficult times the household requirements are supplied by means of this activity, this way some households survive until the potato-harvesting period. These examples serve to ‘deconstruct’ the household moving beyond the ‘black box’ conception of a unit collectively engaged in a single form of production (Whitehead, 1981). Rather, the household serves as a locus for supporting simultaneous involvement in various complementary or non-articulated spheres of production. These include both agricultural and non-agricultural activities (Sage, 1993).