Pesticides et récits de crise dans le monde paysan cambodgien

• Main Author: Eve Bureau-Point
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Association Anthropologie Médicale Appliquée au Développement et à la Santé 2021-03-01
• Series: Anthropologie & Santé
• Subjects: crisis narratives; pesticides; chemical experience; Cambodia
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/anthropologiesante/9054

In Cambodia, the intensification of agricultural production through the use of high-yield seeds, inputs derived from synthetic chemistry and the improvement of irrigation systems, has accelerated from the 1990s onwards. The actors of the agri-food sector have become involved in more complex, interdependent and globalized markets. If chemical inputs are synonymous for farmers with a major step forward in improving agricultural yields, they are also the subject of increasing concern, following the example of Western societies where their intensive use is increasingly questioned. Crisis narratives emerge at the level of scientists, the media, politics, non-governmental organizations, but also at the more intimate level of farmers and the general population in their daily lives. After tracing the history of the development of agrochemicals in Cambodia and its regulation, this article gives an account of the expression of the crisis at these different levels in the country.