FAO: Global pesticides use rose 36% over the last two decades

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has published its World Food and Agriculture Statistical Yearbook 2021, which provides a comprehensive overview of the global food and agricultural landscape and a summary of data on food, nutrition and agriculture. According to the Statistical Yearbook, pesticides use went up 36% between 2000 and 2019, but has plateaued since 2012. Agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers in 2019 was about 190 million tonnes of nutrients, of which 57% was nitrogen.

Pesticides

Global pesticides use increased during the period 2000–2019 by 36 percent, to 4.2 million tonnes in 2019 (see Figure 1). Nearly all the increase took place between 2000 and 2012, with a plateau afterwards. The highest contributions came from Asia, followed by the Americas, Europe, Africa and Oceania. The regional contributions to the world total changed slightly over time, but Asia, the largest contributor, remained stable at 52–53 percent.

The share of the Americas increased from 29 percent to 33 percent of global pesticides consumption while that of Europe decreased slightly from 14 percent to 11 percent. Africa and Oceania applied small amounts of pesticides over time, but Oceania nonetheless had the highest growth in pesticides applications(+85 percent). China was the largest pesticide user in 2019 with 1.8 million tonnes, or 42 percent of the world total, far ahead of the United States of America and Brazil (0.4 million tonnes each).

Global pesticides use per cropland area went up 28 percent in the 2000s, from 2.1 kg/ha to 2.6 kg/ha, and levelled out after 2010 (see Figure 2), although with some important regional differences. Pesticides application rates in 2019 were highest in the Americas, followed by Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa. In the 2010s, Oceania surpassed Europe, but both regions remained below the global average. Asia was the only region where pesticides use per cropland area did not increase between 2010 and 2019. The top three countries in terms of pesticides application rate for 2018 were Trinidad and Tobago, with 25 kg/ha, Saint Lucia, with 20 kg/ha and Ecuador, with 14 kg/ha.

Fertilizers

Total agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers, expressed as the sum of the three nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (expressed as P2O5) and potassium (expressed as K2O), was 189 million tonnes in 2019. As shown in Figure 3, the breakdown was 108 million tonnes of nitrogen (57 percent of the total), 43 million tonnes of phosphorus (23 percent) and 37 million tonnes of potassium (20 percent). The overall fertilizer use in 2019 was 54 million tonnes, or 40 percent, higher than in 2000 (33 percent higher for nitrogen, 34 percent higher for phosphorus and 73 percent higher for potassium).

Asia represented 56 percent of world total agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers in 2019, followed by the Americas (26 percent), Europe (12 percent), Africa (4 percent) and Oceania (2 percent). This ranking of the regions is the same for all nutrients. The main users of inorganic fertilizers are, in descending order, China, India, the United States of America and Brazil, with China the largest user of each nutrient.

Fertilizer use increased in all regions between 2000 and 2019 (see Figure 4). The total for the three nutrients went up 33 million tonnes – the largest increase in absolute terms – in Asia, or 46 percent. The fastest increase took place in Africa, with a growth of 79 percent equivalent to just 3 million tonnes due to the low starting level. In the Americas, fertilizer use posted a 47 percent increase, or 16 million tonnes, while in Oceania it went up 14 percent (or 0.4 million tonnes) compared to 6 percent in Europe (or 1.4 million tonnes).

The mix of nutrients varies across the regions. Nitrogen is the dominant nutrient, accounting for at least 60 percent of fertilizer use in Europe (64 percent), Africa (61 percent) and Asia (60 percent), and around half of the total in Oceania (51 percent) and the Americas (49 percent). The use of phosphorus accounts for 17 to 25 percent of the total in all the regions except Oceania, where its share is 36 percent. The share of potassium in fertilizer use is the highest in the Americas with 26 percent, followed by Europe (19 percent), Asia (18 percent), Africa (14 percent) and Oceania (13 percent). The use of phosphorus declined in Europe and Oceania between 2000 and 2019, while the use of potassium declined only in Europe over the same period.

World agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers per cropland area rose by 34 percent during the 2000–2019 period, to 122 kg of nutrients per hectare – expressed as the sum of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (see Figure 5). This corresponds to an increase of 31 kg/ha compared with 2000. Of the total amount, 70 kg/ha correspond to nitrogen (up 28 percent), 28 kg/ha to phosphorus (up 28 percent) and 24 kg/ha to potassium (up 63 percent).

Fertilizer use per cropland area in 2019 was the highest in Asia, at 180 kg/ha, followed by the Americas (135 kg/ha), Oceania (82 kg/ha), Europe (80 kg/ha) and Africa (26 kg/ha) as shown on Figure 5. With a growth rate of 49 percent between 2000 and 2019, Africa was the region with the fastest increase in fertilizer use per cropland area, ahead of the Americas (+47 percent), Asia (+37 percent) and Europe (+12 percent) – Oceania is the only region showing a decrease (-8 percent).