Pesticide Study Finds Reductions in NZ
Results of a recent HortResearch study, "Trends in Pesticide Use in NZ: 2004", show NZ's use of pesticides has increased, but at a level far below the rise in agricultural earnings. National sales of pesticides increased by 11 percent between 1994 and 2003; during the same time, primary industry earnings rose by 48 percent. In total, NZ imported pesticides worth US$72 million during 2003 - a figure equal to about 1 percent of NZ's US$8 billion agricultural exports in that year.
The report points to recent pest outbreaks in the agricultural sector - such as the clover root weevil - as driving increased pesticide use. However, it also says that in some areas of the horticulture sector there has been a drop in pesticide application.
According to the report, pesticide imports decreased in the late 1990s as many primary industries started introducing pesticide reduction programmes, replacing broad-spectrum pesticides with more benign products. As an example, it says in the apple sector's Integrated Fruit Production programme insecticide use has halved and fungicide use fallen by 35 percent since 1996.
The report points to a trend towards increased organic production as playing a part in containing pesticide use and encouraging the use of "softer" chemicals. And the report's authors have called for the formation of a working group of industry and sector stakeholders to consider development of a better data collection system - with a view to repeating their survey on a more regular basis. In addition, attention should be given to examining the use of pesticides in urban residential environments. This is because anecdotal evidence from overseas suggests domestic users can be a significant contributor to overall pesticide use.
A PDF file of the report can be downloaded from: http://www.hortresearch.co.nz/files/science/ifp/nz-pesticide-trends.pdf |
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The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
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