Frequently Asked Questions - Products
Pesticides, also known as crop protection products or plant protection products are the treatments used to protect crops and keep them healthy, thereby ensuring a high level of quality food. They are the equivalent of medicines for plants, protecting them against attack by pests and diseases. They are available for use in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and gardening. They are applied to the seed, the soil or the crop in a variety of forms but most commonly as a spray.
Crop protection products belong to three main types:
- Herbicides (to control weeds)
- Insecticides (to control insects)
- Fungicides (to prevent or cure infections and diseases)
Pesticides are also known as crop protection products or plant protection products (PPPs). They are treatments used to protect crops and keep them healthy, thereby ensuring a high level of quality food. They are the equivalent of medicines for plants, protecting them against attack by pests and diseases. They are available for use in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and gardening. They are applied to the seed, the soil or the crop in a variety of forms but most commonly as a spray.
Crop protection products belong to three main types:
- Herbicides (to control weeds)
- Insecticides (to control insects)
- Fungicides (to prevent or cure infections and diseases)
Pests and diseases can dramatically reduce food crop yields or render them uneatable. Using pesticides allows us to control pests and diseases on developing food crops (e.g. fruits, vegetables and cereals) – and also during storage. By protecting crops as they grow and during storage, pesticides help ensure a high quality and quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables which keeps the cost of them at affordable prices for consumers.
Pesticides operate in a global market and they can only be placed on the EU market if they meet the stringent EU rules. With the loss of crop protection solution in the EU, the more likely scenario is that imported food would replace home-grown food, as farmers in non-EU countries would be able to use a wider range of pesticides and hence to produce more efficiently than EU farmers. This raises all sorts of questions about the safety of imported food which is regulated by different rules, about transport of food, food production techniques, labour and environmental problems etc.
Non-chemical solutions for pest control such as pheromone traps and predator insects play an important role in food production. Pesticides are complimentary to these solutions and there are clear indications that these alternatives are often more effective in conventional agriculture programmes than they are in organic farming.
Organic farmers use a variety of technical aids in food production, allied to methods that have evolved over centuries and this includes the use of pesticides.
The question of whether there is an overall environmental and health benefit from organic farming has not been resolved and, as such, it remains a matter for consumer choice – however it appears that rates of organic food production will not allow us to effectively supply a growing population with its demands for food, feed, fibre and fuel. Organic farming needs 65–200% more land to produce the same amount of food.
The active substance (‘AS’) of a pesticide is the material within the pesticide responsible for its activity against pests, weeds or fungal diseases. AS are sometimes referred to as active ingredients (‘AI’). The plant protection product is the formulated product in its marketed form, which contains that active substance together with other compounds and is applied to the crops.
Each product has a detailed label on each package, whether it be a bottle or a bag. The label provides all the health and safety instructions to the farmer on how to handle the product. It details the way the product should be used, for example on which crop, the rate of product to be used and the frequency of applications.
