20/02/2026
CyEPHA was pleased to participate in the conference “Preventing Pesticide Effects on Children’s Health and Protecting the Environment” (19 February 2026, Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου | University Of Cyprus), where we presented the process and findings of a national participatory stakeholder implemented in collaboration with the Τμήμα Γεωργίας - Department of Agriculture.
The event was organised by the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health - CII, the Cyprus University of Technology / Τεχνολογικό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου, in cooperation with Europe (Pesticides Action Network).
🧭 Why this work matters: Across Europe, pesticide-related policies have triggered among farmers, reflecting concerns about alignment between policy ambitions and everyday agricultural practice.
◾ ◽ ◾ Achieving reduction targets depends on how pesticide use is shaped by on-the-ground farming realities within specific socio-cultural settings and socio-political contexts that shape current practices
◾ ◽ ◾ So a theory-driven understanding of behaviour is needed.
(❗❗current practices are behaviours. And reduction of pesticide use / IPM requires behavioural change❗❗).
🔍 The CyEPHA participatory two-phase process using a modified two-stage Nominal Group Technique (NGT):
👥 36 participants representing 12 organisations, including competent authorities (Agriculture, Environment, General Laboratory, Public Health Services, Occupational Health), the Institute of Agricultural Studies, academics-researchers, and farmers’ association.
✅Phase 1 – During the workshop, we posed the following guiding question to the participants:
👉 “Based on your knowledge and experience, what are the barriers and challenges (real or perceived) to the implementation of pesticide-reduction measures?”
Inputs were mapped live using the COM-B model. The process itself promoted a shared understanding of the complex of individual and system-level factors.
✅ Phase 2 – Post-workshop synthesis and prioritisation:
👉 A 51-item structured questionnaire, informed by Phase 1, was distributed online.
Participants were asked to rate the importance of each factor (1 = not very important to 4 = extremely important).s.
📊 What stakeholders told us
Top 5 factors influencing current practices in the use of PPP by farmers in Cyprus, based on “Extremely Important”:
1️⃣ Knowledge/ Perception of health impacts (on themselves and their families) from long-term exposure to pesticides
2️⃣ Lack of a comprehensive long-term agricultural policy
3️⃣ Competition from imported products with lower production costs and Uncontrolled inflow from areas not controlled by RC
4️⃣ Prescription and monitoring system for pesticide use
5️⃣ Guidance and problem-solving support mechanism
When asked to choose the 5 most critical factors which, if addressed through appropriate measures, would have the greatest comparative likelihood of success in promoting rational use of plant protection products, the ranking slightly changed:
1️⃣ Knowledge of health impacts (on themselves and their families) from long-term exposure to pesticides
2️⃣ Knowledge of non-chemical, alternative methods and technologies for controlling insect pests
3️⃣ Uncontrolled inflow of products from areas not controlled by Republic of Cyprus
4️⃣ Guidance and problem-solving support mechanism
5️⃣ Targeted training and hands-on capacity building based on farmers’ real needs & Addressing current product production costs.
⚖️ Some conflicting signals: Importantly, the findings also revealed internal contradictions that are themselves highly informative:
❗❗While knowledge of health impacts ranked as a top priority and was perceived as the intervention with the highest likelihood of success, biomonitoring, maintaining health records for workers exposed to pesticides and monitoring health indicators was ranked at the bottom.
❗❗ While addressing current product production costs ranked very high, studies on consumer preferences and the behaviour of end-users in relation to cost were ranked at the bottom.
❗❗ While guidance and problem-solving support mechanisms were prioritised, local studies on the availability, suitability, and targeting of alternative methods for IPM were ranked at the bottom.
👉 These tensions suggest that context-specific research—and its systematic integration into intervention design—may be undervalued, even though it is essential for making guidance actionable, credible, and locally feasible.
💡 Key message
◾◽◾ Participatory approaches are not simply a methodological choice, but a necessity.
◾◽◾ They enhance transparency and legitimacy, surface system-level constraints, and help reconcile the tensions between what stakeholders value, what they prioritise, and what they under-invest in.
