Geography
Pesticides
Pesticides are chemical substances used to control or eliminate pests such as insects, weeds, and fungi in agriculture. They are designed to protect crops and improve yields, but can also have negative impacts on the environment and human health. The use of pesticides is a significant factor in modern agricultural practices and can have far-reaching effects on ecosystems and biodiversity.
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10 Key excerpts on "Pesticides"
eBook - PDFPesticide Policy and Politics in the European Union
Regulatory Assessment, Implementation and Enforcement
- Emanuela Bozzini(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
the term identifies Pesticides with chemicals sprayed over plants by tractors slowly going up and down cropland puffing a light grey cloud. From a regulatory point of view however, the term ‘pesticide’ is broader and includes ‘any substance or mixture of substances intended for pre- venting, destroying, or controlling any pest . . . causing harm during or otherwise interfering with the production, processing, storage, transport, or marketing of food, agricultural commodities, wood and wood products or animal feedstuffs’ (FAO 2014). This means that first Pesticides include a wide range of substances: synthetic chemicals as well as naturally occur- ring toxic substances and microorganisms. They are all part of a group of around 1,500 active substances variously commercialised in tens of thou- sands of products that have been tested for their effectiveness in fighting pests (MacBean 2013). Second, Pesticides are used across the entire food chain, from farm to fork, as well as in aquatic farming, timber industries, to clean public spaces like parks and roads and in home gardening. In short, this book is not about chemicals of relevance for a shrinking proportion of the EU workforce that is employed in farming. Rather, we are talking about thousands of active substances whose presence is ubiquitous in daily life for all of us. The use of Pesticides grew enormously after World War II, in con- nection with the Green Revolution, the science-led process that made agrochemicals central to modern farming. Indeed, Pesticides together with fertilisers and high-yield varieties are part of a package that com- prises the agro-industrial model of farming which is still dominant in Europe and elsewhere in the world. In this context, PPPs are considered essential to protect agricultural production and guarantee stable food supplies.
eBook - PDFPesticides
Use and Misuse and Their Impact in the Environment
- Marcelo Larramendy, Sonia Soloneski, Marcelo Larramendy, Sonia Soloneski(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- IntechOpen(Publisher)
Pesticides are a chemical group widely used by humans, both to protect the production from harmful organisms and quality of crops and for control of vectors and pests of public health [33]. In the last decade, pesticide sales have been roughly stable worldwide with an overall budget of $40 billion, with the US market account-ing for 31.6% of the total [34]. In the last decade, the most significant increase in demand for Pesticides has occurred in Central and South America (6.7% annual increase from 2004 to 2014). Followed by the Asian market (4% annual increase from 2004 to 2014); the latter is the second largest after North America. Even the small African market, accounting for 3.5% of global pesticide expenditure in 2004, has shown a sharp 6.4% annual increase during the same period. An annual increase has also been observed in Europe [35]. 76 Pesticides, Anthropogenic Activities, and the Health of Our Environment Safety DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84161 The use of Pesticides in agriculture has led to significant improvement in crop yield per hectare of land [36]. The economy was boosted, crop yields were tremendously increased, and so were the decreases in fatalities insect-borne diseases [31]. Cooper and Dobson [37] demonstrate the three main effects of Pesticides: 1. Controlling agriculture pests (including disease and weeds). 2. Controlling human and livestock disease vector nuisance organisms. 3. Preventing or controlling organisms that harm other human activities and structures. The other strategy of protecting crops is to utilize biorational Pesticides, such as bioPesticides as alternative to synthetic chemicals. As synthetic Pesticides are withdrawn owing to resistance problems or because they are no longer commer-cially viable, bioPesticides are used as a replacement especially since they do not feature residue problems, which are a matter of significant concern for consumers.
eBook - PDFEnvironmental Ecology
The Impacts of Pollution and Other Stresses on Ecosystem Structure and Function
- Bill Freedman(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
8.1 INTRODUCTION Pesticides are substances that are used to protect humans against the insect vectors of disease-causing pathogens, to protect crop plants from com-petition from weeds, and to protect crops, plants, and livestock from disease and depredation by fungi, insects, mites, and rodents. To these various pesticidal ends, a diverse array of natural biochemi-cals extracted from plants and of inorganic and syn-thetic organic chemicals have been used. Our re-liance on Pesticides has increased greatly in recent decades, and the practice of chemical pest control is now a firmly entrenched component of the tech-nological culture of modern humanity. There have been many tangible benefits of the use of Pesticides. The most important of these have been (1) an increased production of food and fiber because of the protection of crop plants from patho-gens, competition from weeds, defoliation by in-sects, and parasitism by nematodes; (2) the preven-tion of spoilage of harvested, stored foods; and (3) the saving of many millions of human lives by the prevention of certain diseases. Unfortunately, the considerable benefits of the 180 8 Pesticides use of Pesticides are partly offset by some important environmental detriments. There have been rare but spectacular incidents of toxicity to humans, as oc-curred in 1984 at Bhopal, India, where more than 2800 people were killed and more than 20,000 se-riously injured by a large emission (about 40 tons) of poisonous methyl isocyanate vapor, a chemical intermediate in the production of an agricultural pes-ticide (Rozencranz, 1988). An ecologically more pervasive problem is a widespread environmental contamination by persistent Pesticides, including the presence of chemical residues in wildlife, in well waters, and even in humans. Ecological dam-ages have included the poisoning of wildlife by some Pesticides, and the disruption of such ecologi-cal processes as productivity and nutrient cycling.
eBook - PDFSustainable Landscaping
Principles and Practices
- Marietta Loehrlein(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
It discusses the handling, storage, and disposal of Pesticides as mandated by federal law. In Chapter 5 there is a thorough discussion of contamina-tion of water by Pesticides and pesticide breakdown products. Chapter 12 presents the many alternatives to chemical Pesticides. A pesticide is any compound that is used to control pests. This usually indicates killing them in an attempt to eradicate them. However, total eradication is often not possible. The landscape industry is mainly concerned with ornamental plants. Common pests of ornamental plants may be insect pests, fungal infections, or bacte-rial infections. Weeds are also considered a landscape pest. Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are included in the group of Pesticides and are regulated by the same laws. In the landscape industry, PGRs are used to cause flowers to fall off of trees or shrubs in order to avoid nuisance fruit that can cause a mess. They are also used to slow growth in turfgrasses as a means of reducing mowing. PESTICIDE USE IN THE LANDSCAPE According to the EPA, 67 million pounds of Pesticides are applied to lawns every year in the United States. Millions more are applied to the rest of the ornamental plants in the landscape to combat insects, disease pathogens, and weeds. According 187 Pesticides in the Landscape to a Minnesota study published in 2010, weed control represented the highest lawn and garden pesticide usage in that state. In the landscape industry, and in individual residences and businesses, a large number of plant species are present. As a result, the number of insect, pathogen, and weed pests is enormous. The complexity of the landscaped environment presents a challenge to pest-management strategies. Table 11.1 lists some of the commonly used Pesticides in the landscape.
eBook - PDFSafe Use of Chemicals
A Practical Guide
- T.S.S. Dikshith(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Everyone who uses Pesticides has a responsibility to ensure that they use them cor-rectly and effectively. Industrial workers, trainees, and field workers who need to be aware of the toxicity of Pesticides and the possible health hazards and human safety issues are the right people to receive education and training. Management of proper use of chemicals, whether they are Pesticides, industrial solvents, or other chemical substances, demands basic knowledge and correct scientific information. These pages attempt to provide insight into the sound management of Pesticides and other chemical substances used to respond to societal needs and to improve quality of life by addressing hunger and diseases. Everyone who uses Pesticides has the responsibility to ensure that they are used properly, judiciously, and effectively, with proper knowledge. 6.2 GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT OF Pesticides Pesticides are chemical substances used for preventing, controlling, or lessening the damage caused by pests. Although Pesticides have been in use over the centuries for the control and eradication of crop pests, their global impact became evident with the entry of DDT and organophosphate pesicides 1–7 (Appendix 6.1). A pesticide may be a chemical substance or a biological agent like a virus or bacteria used against pests. The kinds of pests dealt with include but are not limited to insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, fish, worms, and microbes, which all compete with humans for food, destroy property, and spread disease. 6.3 CLASSIFICATIONS OF Pesticides Based on their chemical properties, Pesticides are classified as: organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs); organophosphate Pesticides (OPPs); carbamate Pesticides; synthetic pyrethoids; and nicotinoids. Pesticides are also grouped as synthetic Pesticides or biological Pesticides.
eBook - PDFAgricultural Pollution
Environmental Problems and Practical Solutions
- Graham Merrington, Dr Linton Winder Nfa, R. Parkinson, Mark Redman, L. Winder(Authors)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
The actual rates of pesticide application to UK farmland are gradually declining although the spray area, now exceeding 40 million hectares, is increasing (MAFF, 2000d). Pesticide usage in the UK (discounting sulphuric acid) has declined by over 19% in the last 10 years. This is attributed to moves to newer, more 'active' molecules applied at lower rates coupled with adoption of reduced rate application, particularly of fungicides where disease pressure is low (MAFF, 2000d). The trend in the decline in usage looks to continue with the stated UK government policy of limiting pesticide use '...to the minimum necessary for the effective control of pests compatible with the protection of human health and the environment' (DoE/MAFF, 1995). This chapter describes the different types of Pesticides and their modes of action, identifies the pollution problems that they may cause, and discusses practical options for minimising their environmental impact. 7.2 Pesticides AND THEIR APPLICATION Pesticides are used to control a wide range of agricultural pests, diseases and weeds (Table 7.2). They are also present in a number of veterinary products to control some of the ecto- and endo-parasites encountered in livestock farming. Pesticide products 160 Chapter 7 contain a number of constituents, including the active ingredient that kills or controls the target organism as well as a number of additives. These additives include solvents, surfactants, liquid or solid carriers, safeners (to reduce the potential of a pesticide harming the crop itself), and adjuvants (added to a pesticide to increase its efficiency). Table 7.2 Common Pesticides and their target organisms.
- Das, Mihir Kumar(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Daya Publishing House(Publisher)
Keywords:Pesticide, Food, Soil, Water. Introduction The fact that agricultural production to a large extent depends on prevention of crop losses caused by crop pests has given rise to an exponential increase in the production and consumption of chemical Pesticides over the past three to four decades. The total amount of Pesticides used in the country increased from 154 metric tonnes in 1953-54 to nearly 84,000 metric tonnes in 1993-94 with a corresponding increase in the per hectare consumption from 1.2 g This ebook is exclusively for this university only. Cannot be resold/distributed. ha –1 in 1953-54 to as much as 431 g ha –1 in 1992-93. However, there has been a trend of decline in consumption of Pesticides in India in all the states in late nineties. At present India is the largest producer of Pesticides in South Asia with a production of 88,751 metric tonnes (1998-99). The total installed capacity is about 124, 000 metric tonnes for the manufacture of 62 technical grade of Pesticides, which meet 95 per cent of the total need of the country. India is the third largest consumer of Pesticides in the world and highest among the South Asian countries. The Pesticides used in agriculture broadly include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, nematicides, rodenticides, avicides, bactericides, molluscicides and ascaricides etc. Upto 1995-96 the major group of chemicals used in agriculture was insecticides (80 per cent) followed by fungicides (10 per cent), herbicides (7 per cent) and others (3 per cent). Thereafter, the consumption of insecticides declined with simultaneous increase in the consumption of herbicides and fungicides. The consumption of insecticides in 1999-2000 was 60 per cent, fungicides 21 per cent, herbicides 14 per cent and others 5 per cent.
- Masae Shiyomi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Masae Shiyomi, Hiroshi Koizumi(Authors)
- 2001(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Degradation of Pesticides in the Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Influences of Pesticides on Organisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Impacts on Nontarget Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Bioconcentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 275 0-8493-0904-2/01/$0.00+$.50 © 2001 by CRC Press LLC 276 STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN AGROECOSYSTEMS DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT INTRODUCTION Pesticides play a major role in controlling insect pests and weeds and have brought about sustained high yields and higher quality of agricultural produce. They have also helped liberate farmers from the backbreaking task of weeding. Pesticides, which serve purposes including those of insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides, are active substances that have some sort of toxi-city toward living things. Pesticides applied to farmland are put into the environment on purpose then are dispersed widely throughout the atmos-phere, soil, and aquatic environment outside farmland. Thus, in an attempt to solve problems involving toxicity, residual tendency, and selectivity among organisms, which are drawbacks of Pesticides, improvements have been made in the chemical structures of these chemicals and in the ways they are formulated and applied. As a result, currently used Pesticides are com-pounds characterized by low toxicity, easy degradability, high selectivity, and high activity (Takagi and Ueji, 1997). Decreasing the environmental load caused by Pesticides is also needed to further expedite ecological farming practices.
eBook - PDFChemistry and Toxicology of Pollution
Ecological and Human Health
- Des W. Connell, Gregory J. Miller(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
a 1 (w), one week; 1(d), one day; 2(m), two months etc. b h, hours; d, days; w, weeks; m, months; y, years Source: Modified from Mackay et al. (1997); Barbash (1993). (active ingredients, a.i.) ha −1 , and area covered), site characteristics (e.g. soil properties such as particle sizes, moisture, pH, and organic matter), vegetation cover, drainage, groundwater depth, or building environments), and prevailing climatic factors (e.g. seasonal, wind, rainfall, runoff, and temperature). Pesticides are commonly dispersed beyond the target area into the local environment. They are then subject to transport and degradation processes that may redistribute residues on local, regional, and sometimes long-range global environments, depending upon mobility and per- sistence properties. General principles influencing the behavior and fate of Pesticides, primarily in soils (and sedi- ments), water, and air are considered below. In this section, we are focusing on the fate of Pesticides in the abiotic environment. The uptake and concentration of Pesticides (e.g. bioconcentration) by organisms are discussed in Section 9.8. Terrestrial The behavior of Pesticides in the lithosphere is mainly related to the thin outer layer, several meters deep, on the Earth’s surface (Robinson 1973). The soil environment contains a relatively immobile matrix of solid, liquid, and gaseous phases. The solid phase contains clay min- erals, organic matter, aluminum and silicon oxides, and hydroxides, whereas the liquid phase consists of water and 9.6 Environmental Behavior and Fate of Pesticides 193 dissolved salts, termed the soil solution. Air forms most of the gaseous phase. Pesticides enter the soil environment via direct application, dust deposition, rainout or precipita- tion, from runoff, and waste disposal.
- William Joseph Ntow(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Younger farmers (<45 years of age) were the most vulnerable group, probably because they did more spraying than older farmers (>45 years of age). Farmers did not necessarily associate hazardous Pesticides with better pest control. The introduction of well-targeted training programmes for farmers on the need for and safe use of Pesticides is advocated. Keywords: insecticide; pest control; Pesticides; pest management; vegetables Introduction Urban food needs in cities and towns in Ghana are growing, and increasingly vegetables are grown in urban and peri-urban areas to meet the demand. However, traditional vegetable farming systems (i.e. without any chemical input) are incapable of meeting this challenging demand. For instance, pests and diseases, which pose big problems in vegetable production, require intensive pest management to control them. Chemical pesticide use is a common practice to control pests and diseases in vegetable cultivation in Ghana. However, besides their beneficial effects, Pesticides are accepted as having potential environmental and public health impacts as well. If improperly used, Pesticides can cause direct human poisoning, accumulate as residues in food and the environment or lead to the development of resistant strains of pests. These problems can arise from misuse of the Pesticides or over-reliance on them, particularly if the users are not aware of these potential problems. In Ghana there are already some levels of contamination of Pesticides in water, sediment, crops and human fluids in areas of highly intensive vegetable production (Ntow, 2001). There also exist species of aphids, which have developed resistance to some insecticides, and there are probably other pests resistant to other Pesticides, which are as yet undetected. While Pesticides are generally considered a panacea for farmers’ pest concerns, farmers’ perceptions and use of the chemicals have not received much attention.
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