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Changes in Pesticide Usage in the United Kingdom: Policies, Results, and Long-term Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Harry M. Lawson
Harry M. Lawson*
Affiliation:
Scott. Crop Res. Inst., Dundee DD2 5DA, Scotland
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Abstract

Current United Kingdom (UK) government policy on pesticides is aimed at minimizing rather than arbitrarily reducing usage. It is to be achieved through a rigorous Approvals process, the setting of statutory maximum residue limits, regular monitoring, legislation on the safe use of pesticides on farms, and a core-funded research program on topics such as improved forecasting of pest infestations, more effective application techniques, alternative control strategies, integrated pest management and sustainable farming systems. Over the longer term these measures are expected to bring about substantial real decreases in pesticide usage, without the need to impose arbitrary reduction targets, such as have been implemented by several other European countries. Reductions in the usage of particular chemicals will also occur as a result of the implementation of European Community (EC) environmental legislation on pesticide levels in ground and drinking water and pesticide discharges into the North Sea. With herbicides, the tonnage of active ingredient applied in the UK declined substantially during the 1980s, due mainly to the increased use of products which were more biologically active at lower dosage rates than those they replaced. The actual percentage of crops sprayed remained at 95 to 100. Further reductions are likely in the 1990s, enhanced by factors such as dose-cutting by farmers in response to economic rather than environmental pressures and an increase in set-aside. Weed scientists are currently studying the long-term effects on weed population dynamics of reduced herbicide inputs in cereals, set-aside management, and more environmentally friendly, lower input rotations, as part of a wider program of research designed to provide government with scientifically based information upon which to decide future policies.

Keywords

Herbicide reductionseedbanksreduced inputspopulation dynamicsenvironment
Type
Symposium
Information
Weed Technology , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 360 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the Weed Science Society of America 

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References

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