In December, it will be five years since the World Bank (wb) formally adopted its Operational Policy on pest management (op 4.09). However, two recently released reports of the Pesticide Action Network North America (panna) clearly show "widespread violations of the wb's pest management policy'.

op 4.09 requires World Bank projects and policies to reduce farmers' reliance on pesticides and promote integrated pest management (ipm). The policy also bans the use of Bank funds for procurement of the most hazardous pesticides. But The Persistence of Pesticide dependence: a review of World Bank projects and their compliance with the World Bank's Pest Management Policy, 1999-2003 reveals that the wb has seriously fallen short on promoting ipm, and that wb funds for agricultural and rural development continued to exacerbate dependence on pesticides.

The other panna report