Fungicides in Europe During the Twenty-first Century: a Comparative Assessment Using Agri-environmental Indices of EU_(27)

摘要

A reliable and comparative fungicide index (FI) was assessed to describe the fungicide use in the agricultural land of Europe during the first 20 years of the twenty-first century (from 2000 to 2018). FI is not uniform across EU_(27). The highest mean value (1.34 kg ha~(-1)) of FI was observed in Southern Europe compared to the other sub-regions of the EU, while this variation existed mainly due to the inorganic fungicide use. The mean value of inorganic fungicide index (FI_(inorg)) in agricultural land area (AL) in Southern Europe was 1.69 kg ha~(-1), about three times higher than the average value (0.63 kg ha~(-1)) across the EU. The higher mean values of organic fungicide index (FI_(org)) in conventional agricultural land area (convAL) was observed in Western Europe (0.54 kg ha~(-1)), while an upward trend was observed in the FI_(org) mainly in Central and Eastern and Northern Europe during the period 2000-2018. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of 19 agri-environmental indicators (FI, FI_(org), FI_(inorg), agricultural land use, crop groups, fungicide chemical families) was assessed to describe this differentiation of the four geographical sub-regions of EU. Despite the linear growth of the organic farmland area, the fungicide use in the agricultural land remained relatively stable, while the larger the farm size (ha), the greater the amounts (kg of a.s.) of fungicides which were used in the cropland of EU. The impact assessment of each variable which was examined on the FI could contribute to the implementation of European agricultural policy, reducing in this way the environmental impact.