Pesticides and Sustainable Agriculture: An OECD Perspective

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Pesticides and Sustainable Agriculture An OECD
Perspective
Kevin Parris Trade and Agriculture Directorate,
OECD, Paris, France kevin.parris_at_oecd.org
www.oecd.org/tad/env/indicators
European Voice Conference, Brussels, Belgium 14
October 2008
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Policies, Pesticides and the Environment
State of Environment
Policies
Driving Forces

• Agricultural -- CAP Support for
  crops
• Agri-environmental -- Support for organic
  farming
• Environmental -- EU Water Framework
  Directive

• Farm systems Conventional to Organic
• Farm practices Integrated Pest Management
• Farm input use Pesticides

• Soils Soil biodiversity
• Water Quality
• Air Ozone, methyl bromide
• Biodiversity Wild species in terrestrial and
  aquatic ecosystems

This framework excludes some issues, e.g. human
health, container disposal
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Volume of active ingredients, Index 1990-92100
Trends in EU15 Pesticide Use 1990 to 2006
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Recent Trends in EU15 Pesticides

• Declining use (volume) by 6.5 between 1990-92 to
  2004-06 but growth in crop output mainly
  explained by
• Interaction of higher crop productivity and lower
  crop subsidies
• Adoption of improved pest management practices
• Expansion of organic farming, partly due to
  support
• Human health and environmental risks declining,
  but
• Information is limited with no EU wide indicator
• Widespread presence of pesticides in rivers,
  lakes, aquifers
• Continuing harmful impacts on wildlife
• Persistence of older (banned) pesticides (e.g.
  DDT, atrazine), but 75 reduction in methyl
  bromide use (ozone depleting substance)
• Monetary costs of pesticide use remain high, e.g.
  in UK about 150 million annually for water
  companies (this excludes other human health
  costs and harm to biodiversity)

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Producer Support Estimates (PSE)
PSE as a share of Gross Farm Receipts (PSE
billion, average 2004-06, for Brazil China 2005)
Norway 2.4
EU25 113
OECD 225
USA 31
China 28
Australia 1.0
Brazil 3.4
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Medium Term Outlook (next 10 years)

• Higher international agricultural commodity
  prices, including growth in biofuel production
  and organic sector
• Impact of climate change on crop production and
  patterns
• Improvements in crop husbandry, pest management
  and related technologies, especially
  biotechnologies
• Increase in public pressure to improve
  information on the health and environmental
  impacts of using pesticides
• Decline in overall EU and OECD agricultural
  support and change in how support is provided to
  farmers

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International market price projections 2017
Nominal prices fall but stay above average levels
of the past
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Future Challenges

• Matching imbalance between benefits of pesticide
  use and support for farming, with social and
  environmental costs
• Improving the uptake of Integrated Pest
  Management
• Developing technologies that reduce health and
  environmental risks but that improve crop yields
• Strengthening knowledge, science and monitoring
  to underpin better decision making
• Enhancing public understanding of health,
  environmental, transgenic crops and pesticide
  use linkages
• Recognising pesticides are also used by other
  sectors, e.g. in Belgium farming accounts for
  65-70 of pesticides

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Policy Actions

• Continue reforms of Common Agricultural Policy by
  lowering overall level and composition of support
  
• Enhance coherence between EU farm and env.
  policies so that carrots provided if farmers
  comply with sticks
• Ensure policy mix to balance pesticide cost and
  benefits regulatory, economic (taxes),
  information and voluntary
• Support the collection and public dissemination
  of science and monitoring data related to
  pesticides
• Undertake cost-benefit analysis of pesticide use
  in agriculture and its health and environmental
  impacts

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Thank you for listening
Views expressed in this presentation are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect those
of the OECD or its member countries
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