Pesticide Regulation in the Global South: Sri Lanka’s Glyphosate Ban

The pesticide glyphosate, a key component of modern industrial agriculture, has been linked to a variety of negative environmental and health effects. As a result, governments around the world are facing demands for stricter glyphosate regulation. To contribute to a better understanding of the politics of glyphosate regulation, we examine the case of Sri Lanka, which in 2015 became the first and (so far) only country in the world to implement a complete ban of glyphosate. The ban proved to be short-lived, as it was partially reversed in 2018 and (in the context of Sri Lanka’s recent crisis) fully revoked in 2022. To explain this glyphosate ban and its partial reversal, we employ qualitative process tracing methods and combine a multiple streams framework of the policy process with theories of policy reversal. We find that the ban resulted from increased concern over the human health risks of glyphosate, driven by local policy entrepreneurs in a context of intense electoral competition. The ban’s partial reversal, in contrast, stemmed from worries over mounting economic losses for the country’s tea sector and from scientists’ failure to corroborate the specific health risks initially invoked.