There is growing concern that use of antimicrobials on crops might persist as residues on harvested food. Food crops also risk contamination with resistant microbes previously exposed to human and veterinary antimicrobials that are deposited on plants from agricultural inputs such as manure, irrigation water and soil.

After the crops are harvested, low-dose exposure to antimicrobial residues or to resistant microbes could increase the risk of development of antimicrobial in people.

Using a scoping review of the literature to build a conceptual framework, this project, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, aims to describe the current state of knowledge and summarize the public health risk factors and transmission pathways of antimicrobial resistance through crop systems, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.