We're pleased to share a new SPRINT paper: "Selected farm-level crop protection practices in Europe and Argentina: Opportunities for moving toward sustainable use of pesticides" 👏
👩🔬 Authored by Jennifer Mark (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL), Peter Fantke, and Farshad Soheilifard (DTU - Technical University of Denmark), alongside many others from across Europe and Argentina, the paper highlights key findings on pesticide use and sustainable practices.
📌 Key highlights:
⭐ Analysis of over 1700 pesticide applications across 11 countries, including Europe and Argentina, highlighting differences in pesticide types and their costs.
⭐ The dosages of pesticides applied varied significantly—up to 20 times around the recommended doses—suggesting a need for more precise application strategies.
⭐ Perennial crops, particularly grapes and apples, had the highest pesticide application costs per hectare.
⭐ Non-pesticide approaches such as crop rotation, resistant crop varieties, and decision support systems were identified as effective strategies to reduce pesticide dependency.
⭐ Findings suggest that adopting sustainable practices can help minimise the negative impacts on human and environmental health, supporting informed decision-making for agricultural advisory systems.
📝 The study contributes to understanding pesticide application patterns and supports the development of guidelines aimed at moving towards more sustainable agricultural practices.
Read the full paper by clicking here.