Pesticides Reaching the Environment as a Consequence of Innapropiate Agricultural Practices in Argentina

ARIAS, ANDRÉS HUGO; PEREYRA, MARCELO TOMÁS; BUZZI, NATALIA S; MARCOVECCHIO, JORGE EDUARDO

Pesticides-Formulations, Effects, Fate.

Intech

Lugar: Rijeka; Año: 2011; p. 313 - 332

As an agricultural country, Argentina was estimated from 26 to 30 million hm2 of farmlandusing pesticides in the period 2005-2008. It is stated that during pesticides application, up to30-50% of the applied amount can be lost to the air. Assuming an average dose of a 4.3kg.hm-1, the amount of pesticides used range between 112 to 129 million Kg with losses tothe environment ranging from 33.6 to 64.5 million Kg per year (this means a minimum ofabout 1 Kg of pesticide in the environment per habitant). In addition, this estimate is notconsidering that the number of treatments has increased in the last decade, with 66% of thecropped area using two or more herbicide types, and 80% using two or more insecticidesduring treatment. To sum up, the existing evidence arguments in favour of revising and restructuring the national agriculture policy and monitoring programs. As a first step, this chapter will discuss some elements of the Argentinean agricultural practices and policies, and then itwill focus in reviewing pesticides? occurrence in the environment.