Report on the implementation of a TAPAS 2001 action Use of pesticides FINLAND

Transcription

1 TAPAS-2001 (Pesticides) Finland Final report Eurostat - F Report on the implementation of a TAPAS 2001 action Use of pesticides FINLAND Mervi-Leena Savela, Eija-Leena Hynninen and Hans Blomqvist Plant Production Inspection Centre Pesticide Division P.O.Box 42 FIN HELSINKI Finland Tel Internet: Esa Ikäheimo and Anneli Partala Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry P.O.Box 310 FIN GOVERNMENT HELSINKI Finland Tel Internet: tike.mmm.fi

2 2 Summary The objective of the TAPAS (Technical Action Plan for improving Agricultural Statistics) 2001 of Finland was to improve methods to get detailed information on the total and regional use of plant protection products in Finland. The project was aimed at two areas: improving co-operation between institutes collecting pesticide usage data in Finland and improving methods to analyse pesticide sales data, which has been collected in Finland since As a result of the project, a pilot survey with potato was conducted using the data provided from the agricultural plot databank of ProAgria Association of Rural Advisory Centres. Pesticide usage data from the pilot survey, with a comparison with the data obtained from sales statistics, will be presented in the report of the TAPAS 2002 action. 1. Introduction 1.1 Agriculture in Finland About eight per cent of the total area ( km2) of Finland is arable land. Forest and other woodland cover 68 per cent and inland waterways 10 per cent of the total area of Finland. In 2001, cereals contributed to 58 per cent of the cultivated land without fallow (Table 1.). Area under potato cultivation was 1.5 per cent of the cultivated area. Table 1. Arable area in Finland In thousands, ha Grassland Cereals, total Oil plants Sugar beets Potatoes Other crop Cultivated area Fallow Cultivated area + fallow Pesticide sales in 2001 A total of tonnes of pesticide products containing tonnes of active ingredients were sold in Finland in 2001 (Table 2.) The sales of plant protection products were 88 per cent of the total sales of pesticides. The long-term trends in the sales of pesticides in Finland are shown in the figure 1. (see APPENDIX 1.). As in previous years the major product group in 2001 was agricultural herbicides. Herbicides contributed 70 per cent to the total sales volume, and they accounted for 78 per cent of the active ingredients. The total amount of herbicides sold increased by 534 tonnes to tonnes, mainly due to the increase in the sales of glyphosate products

3 3 and phenoxy herbicides. The volume of glyphosate products contributed almost 50 per cent to the total volume of herbicides. About 30 per cent of the volume of herbicides was for cereal farming and 11 per cent for sugar beet farming. Table 2. Summary of the volume and value of pesticide sales in Finland in 2001 Pesticides Active ingredient sales (tonnes) Product sales (tonnes) Change of product sales on 2000 (tonnes) Value of sales (million Eur) Agricultural herbicides Fungicides Agricultural insecticides Growth regulators Forest pesticides Biological pesticides Other insecticides and rodenticides Insect repellents Total Fungicides were the second largest substance group accounting for 12 per cent of the total sales volume, or 13 per cent calculated as active ingredients. The sales of fungicides increased by 37 tonnes to 438 tonnes. The fungicides contained 192 tonnes of active ingredients. About half of the total fungicide sales were for cereal farming and about one third for potato farming. At 108 tonnes, the sales of agricultural insecticides were 50 tonnes less than in The products contained 42 tonnes of active ingredients, contributing 3 per cent to the total sales of active ingredients Objectives of the project Finland has comprehensive statistics on annual pesticide sales amounts since The data is collected by authorities of Plant Production Inspection Centre, which request the approval holders of pesticides (usually importers) to provide them with the requested data. Although the provision of the sales figures is not compulsory, the sales data received is found to represent the total sales considerably well. Sales data may be used to obtain estimates for total use of pesticides, as well as use of pesticides by type of product (herbicide, fungicide, etc.), by chemical group (organophosphates, sulfonyl ureas, etc.) or by individual active ingredients. Combined with recommended dose figures sales data may also be used to get information on area

4 4 treated with pesticides. Estimation of pesticide use on different crops by using sales statistics is also possible with certain crops and certain crop-specific products (active ingredients). However, sales statistics have the disadvantage that they cannot provide much information on regional use of pesticides. Surveys on pesticide usage are needed to supplement the information given by sales statistics. In the course of the TAPAS (Technical Action Plan for improving Agricultural Statistics) 1999 it was found that data on pesticide use are collected by several institutes in Finland. Therefore - in order to avoid waist of resources and farmers work the TAPAS action 2001 was not focused on preparing new questionnaires on pesticide use. Instead, exploitation of the data already collected was considered meaningful. The objectives of the TAPAS action 2001 were: - to improve methods to store and analyse the sales statistics - to improve co-operation between institutes collecting data on pesticide use in Finland 2. Methods and results 2.1 Pesticide sales database The development of a database (Access) for saving and analysing pesticide sales data was started during the TAPAS project The work continued during the TAPAS 2001 action. Sales data (volume and value) from 1997 to 2001 have been saved in the database. Products and active ingredients are supplied with different indexes, so that queries for different purposes can be made. Sold quantities of the products can be presented by type of pesticide (fungicide, herbicide, etc.) or by chemical groups. When possible, the products are given with an index of the crop and recommended dose figure. By using the database, calculations were made of the use of cereal herbicides in 2000 and The total use in 2000 was 0.29 kg active ingredients per hectares under cereal farming (Table 3). In 2001 the use rate was increased to 0.43 kg/ha. Corresponding estimates for use of herbicides on sugar beet are shown in table 4 and for use of fungicides on potato in table 5. Estimates on the area treated with certain pesticides or pesticide groups, based on the sales figures and recommended dose figures, can also be made using the database. For example, the total amount of products containing organophosphorus compounds sold in 2001 was sufficient for a single treatment of some hectares.

5 5 Table 3. Sales values (as active ingredients) and estimated use of herbicides approved for use on cereals (active ingredients kg / hectares cereal area) in Finland in 2000 and 2001 Active ingredient (a.i.) Sales 2000, kg Estimated use 2000 (kg/ha cereal area; ha) Sales 2001, kg Estimated use 2001 (kg/ha cereal area; ha) amidosulfuron * bentazone clopyralid * dicamba dichlorprop-p * fenoxaprop-p-ethyl flamprop-isopropyl fluroxypyr * MCPA * mecoprop-p * metsulfuron-methyl * sulfosulfuron thifensulfuron-methyl tralkoxydim triasulfuron tribenuron-methyl Total * main use on cereals, the product/products approved also for use on certain other crops Table 4. Sales values (as active ingredients) and estimated use of herbicides approved for use on sugar beet (active ingredients kg / hectares under sugar beet cultivation) in Finland in 2000 and 2001 Active ingredient (a.i.) Sales 2000, kg Estimated use 2000 (kg/ha sugar beet area ; ha) Sales 2001, kg Estimated use 2001 (kg/ha sugar beet area; ha) chloridazon clopyralid * desmedipham ethofumesate metamitron * phenmedipham triflusulfuron-methyl Total * main use on sugar beet, the product/products approved also for use on certain other crops Table 5. Sales values (as active ingredients) and estimated use of fungicides approved for use on potato (active ingredients kg /hectares under potato cultivation) in Finland in 2000 and 2001

6 6 Active ingredient (a.i.) Sales 2000, kg Estimated use 2000 (kg/ha potato area ; ha) Sales 2001, kg Estimated use 2001 (kg/ha potato area; ha) dimethomorph * fluazinam flutolanil imazalil mancozeb * metalaxyl-m paraffin propamocarb hydrochloride tolclofos-methyl tolylfluanid * Total * main use on potato, the product/products approved also for use on certain other crops 2.2 Pesticide use survey Co-operation between institutes collecting data on pesticide use, started during the TAPAS 1999 action, was continued. Contact to the representatives of the institutes was taken by and telephone calls. In addition, searches were made in the research databases of the institutes, in order to find out possible new projects dealing with pesticide use. Among the institutes surveyed were MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Finnish Environment Institute, Sugar Beet Research Centre, Potato Research Institute and ProAgria Association of Rural Advisory Centre Agricultural plot databank of ProAgria Most promising system to get information on pesticide use was considered the databank developed by ProAgria Association of Rural Advisory Centres (Fig. 2., see APPENDIX 2.). ProAgria is an agricultural expert organisation that provides advisory and development services for its members and customers. The agricultural plot databank of ProAgria is based on electronic cultivation notes. Farmers record the data on cultivation treatments (sowing, fertilization, plant protection treatments, etc.) on each plot (average plot size hectares) in electronic form, either themselves or in co-operation with advisors of the rural advisory centres, and send the data to databank. Databank is now in a development, construction and testing phase. Sending data to databank is voluntary for farmers. Data is collected mainly from farms that belong to different kind of project groups or production development groups. Farmers who have sent data to databank own the original data. Data is delivered to databank with a promise that original data will be used only to statistical purposes.

7 7 After inspection and validity checking the data is downloaded to the databank. Various datahandling methods are used to improve the usefulness of collected material. For example weather data and product analyses will later be added to databank. In the future it is possible to have most important statistical key values of cultivation directly in webreports from internet. Farmers, who have sent data, can compare their cultivation results to other similar farms, and so benchmark possible items to improve their production. More exact and complicated reports will be delivered in annually published summaries both in internet and in more convenient media Pilot survey on pesticide treatments on potato Data from the agricultural databank of ProAgria were provided for the use of TAPAS actions 2001 and The data contained plotwise cultivation treatments of potato cultivation in 2000 and 2001 and were collected and loaded to the databank under a research project concerning production costs in potato cultivation. The data dealing with plant protection treatments was downloaded from the databank to an Access database (Potato treatment database). The data covered plant protection treatments of about 300 plots/ 590 ha in 2000 and 230 plots / 420 ha in The plots were from 36 farms in 2000 and 26 farms in The farms were situated in the rural centres shown in Fig. 3, in APPENDIX 3. In 2000 the area of the plots represented 1.8 % and in % of the potato cultivation area of Finland. Processing and analysing of the data has been started. Regional information on the use rates of different active ingredients or active ingredient groups, as well as on the total pesticide use rate on potato (kg/ha cultivated area and kg/ha treated area) will be obtained during the TAPAS 2002 action. 3. Conclusions The pesticide sales databank developed and improved during the TAPAS actions has been successfully used for several purposes. The database has facilitated the compiling of the annual report of pesticide use. It has also proved to be indispensable in answering different questionnaires concerning the use/sales of particular active ingredients or active ingredient groups. At present, the database contains sales data starting from the year In future, the database will be amended with the sales data backwords from that year, thus making it possible to obtain information on the long-term trends of the use/sales of active ingredients or active ingredient groups of special interest. Pesticide usage surveys are needed to supplement the information given by the sales statistics. Surveys conducted to obtain information on pesticide use have shown that farmers are often not willing to complete questionnaires, and the response rates remain usually considerably low. In order to get environmental subsidies, the farmers must make cultivation notes including the plant protection treatments carried out in each plot. At present an increasing proportion of the farmers have their cultivation notes in electronic form and this tendency can be expected to continue. Therefore, the agricultural plot databank of ProAgria is a promising system to collect information on

8 8 cultivation treatments, with mutual advantages both to the farmers and to the advisory services and to the purposes of research. Information on pesticide use could be obtained as a by-product, without additional effort made by the farmers. Processing and analysing of the potato cultivation data downloaded from the databank of ProAgria to an Access database (Potato treatment database) will be continued during the TAPAS action The results of the pilot survey will provide detailed information on the use of pesticides in potato cultivation. The data on pesticide use provided by the survey will be compared with the information obtained from the pesticide sales statistics. The results will be presented in the report on the implementation of the TAPAS action 2002.

9 9 APPENDIX 1. Active ingredients, tonnes TOTAL Herbicides Insecticides Fungicides Year Figure 1. The sales of pesticides as active ingredients in Finland in

10 10 APPENDIX 2. Figure 2. A scheme of the agricultural plot databank of ProAgria Association of Rural Advisory Centres

11 11 APPENDIX 3. Figure 3. The ProAgria Rural Advisory Centres (18). Farms of the pilot survey were situated within the area of the six Rural Advisory Centres marked with green colour.