State governance of pesticide use and trade in Vietnam

Highlights• Vietnam has experienced an exponential growth of both the quantity and the value of imported pesticides in recent decades.• The increasing import of newly formulated (and safer) pesticides has not replaced or reduced the highly toxic pesticides.• The improper use of pesticides by farmers (too high dosages, cocktailing of pesticides, inadequate pre-harvest intervals) has further contributed to the environmental and health problems resulting from pesticides.• The Vietnamese governments have been unsuccessful to regulate the pesticide market.• To some extent, and in some more wealthy areas, famers and retailers have emerged successfully as new pesticide governance actors.• To a large extent however, an overall improvement of pesticide registration and pesticide use can only rely on better intervention of Vietnamese governments.