Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

xx Sustainable Agriculture and Food

billion kilogrammes (kg) per year. In the early 21st century, the annual value of the
global market was US$25 billion, of which some $3 billion of sales was in develop-
ing countries (Pretty, 2005). Herbicides account for 49 per cent of use, insecticides
25 per cent, fungicides 22 per cent, and others about 3 per cent (Table 1). A third
of the world market by value is in the US, which represents 22 per cent of active
ingredient use. In the US, though, large amounts of pesticide are used in the home/
garden (17 per cent by value) and in industrial, commercial and government set-
tings (13 per cent by value).
These factors of production have had a direct impact on world food produc-
tion (Figures 2a–c). There are clear and significant relationships between fertilizer
consumption, number of agricultural machines, irrigated area, agricultural land
area and arable area with total world food production (comprising all cereals,
coarse grains, pulses, roots and tubers, and oil crops). The inefficient use of some
of these inputs has, however, led to considerable environmental harm. Increased
agricultural area contributes substantially to the loss of habitats, associated biodi-
versity and their valuable environmental services (MEA, 2005). Some 30–80 per
cent of nitrogen applied to farmland escapes to contaminate water systems and the
atmosphere, as well as increasing the incidence of some disease vectors (Victor and
Reuben, 2002; Smil, 2001; Pretty et al, 2003a; Townsend et al, 2003; Giles, 2005).
Irrigation water is often used inefficiently, and causes waterlogging and saliniza-
tion, as well as diverting water from other domestic and industrial users, and agri-
cultural machinery has increased the consumption of fossil fuels in food production
(Leach, 1976; Stout, 1998).
These relationships clearly show the past effectiveness of these factors of pro-
duction in increasing agricultural productivity. One argument is to suggest that
the persistent world food crisis indicates a need for substantially greater use of
these inputs (Avery, 1995; Trewevas, 2001; Cassman et al, 2002; Green et al, 2005;
Tripp, 2006). But it would be both simplistic and optimistic to assume that

Table 1 World and US use of pesticide active ingredients (mean for 1998–1999)

Pesticide use World pesticide use US pesticide use

(Million kg ai^1 ) % (Million of ai^1 )%

Herbicides

Insecticides

Fungicides

Other^2

Total

948

643

251

721

2563

37

25

10

28

100

246

52

37

2193

554

44

9

7

40

100

1 ai = active ingredient.
2 Other includes nematicides, fumigants, rodenticides, molluscicides, aquatic and fish/bird
pesticides and other chemicals used as pesticides (e.g. sulphur, petroleum products).
3 Other in the US includes 150 million kg of sulphur, petroleum used as pesticides.
Source: Pretty and Hine (2005), using EPA (2001), OECD (2001)