Global pesticide use: Profile, trend, cost / benefit and more

Abstract

In present study, the data of pesticide use, crop (the total of cereals, pulses, roots and tubers, oil crops, fibre crops, fruits, vegetables, and melons, etc.) production and the area harvested of the world and major countries for the period between 1990 and 2014 were collected, organized and summarized from FAOSTAT. First I proposed an index to measure the productive efficiency of pesticide use, cost / benefit, which refers to the amount of pesticide use to produce a certain amount of crop in a year. Theoretical relationship between crop yield and cost / benefit of pesticide use is a model with the sigmoid curve: y = a + b / (1 + exp(c-rx)), where y is crop yield, x is cost / benefit of pesticide use. The results showed that global cost / benefit of pesticide use (total) increased with time during 1990 to 2007, and declined since 2007. Pesticide use (total) (kg / ha) had the similar trend. Global insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides / bactericides use and cost / benefit declined with time since 2007. During 2010 and 2014, mean pesticide cost / benefit was 0.645 g pesticide use (total) / kg crop production, and mean annual pesticide use (total) was 2.784 kg /ha. Mean cost / benefit of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides / bactericides use between 2010 and 2014 were 0.051, 0.16 and 0.074 g / kg crop production, respectively, and mean annual use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides / bactericides were 0.221, 0.69 and 0.32 kg / ha, respectively. Globally, the cost / benefit of dithiocarbamates, bipiridils, carbamates insecticides, and organo-phosphates, and the use of dithiocarbamates, bipiridils, and carbamates insecticides have significantly declined since 2007, and conversely, the cost / benefit of triazoles / diazoles and the use of triazoles / diazoles, plant growth regulators, and amides, have significantly increased since 2007. Of the major countries, the averaged annual cost / benefit of pesticide use (total) of Brazil during 2010 to 2014 was the greatest (1.883), followed by Japan (1.846), Mexico (1.678), China (1.243), Canada (0.979), USA (0.8733), France (0.708), Germany (0.673), UK (0.55), and India (0.089). The averaged annual pesticide use (total) (kg / ha) of Japan during 2010 to 2014 was the greatest (18.94), followed by China (10.45), Mexico (7.87), Brazil (6.166), Germany (5.123), France (4.859), UK (4.034), USA (3.886), and India (0.261). Profile of development, production and use of pesticides in China was discussed in detail. Various trends were analysed and a variety of valuable data were provided.