n the pursuit of technical goals such as improved yields or reduced pest
damage, agricultural development programs—and the technologies they
introduce—can alter or reinforce gender roles and relations with clear
implications for gender equality. This case study explores the experiences
of tomato production and pest management of men and women
farmers in Tuobodom, Ghana. A primary goal of the research is to
better understand the farmers’ current dependence on pesticides and
identify gender-based constraints to, and opportunities for, the introduction
of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. The findings
reveal how contact with pesticides becomes part of tomato farmers’
embodied experiences and how different roles played by men and
women in agriculture, coupled with the differences in their knowledge,
perceptions, and access to resources, result in differential exposure to
and experiences of pesticides. Analysis using an embodied livelihoods framework reveals that men and women face a paradox in which their
dependence on pesticides for tomato production reduces their body
capitals, which they need to sustain their corporeal existence through
their livelihoods as tomato farmers. The IPM programs could introduce
alternative technologies of pest management that reduce dependence
on toxic chemical pesticides, but these alternatives will be successful
only they are developed in collaboration with farmers.