An online system for pesticides ecotoxicological risks developed

The Agronomy Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires has developed an online system (RIPEST) for estimating risk associated to the ecotoxicity of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, based on the applied dose and the area covered. 

 

The RIPEST can be accessed for free. "We have developed the platform so that the decision-makers have the tool of ecological criteria to support their decisions", explained Diego Ferraro, one of the authors of the project.

 

The RIPESTA database contains 3011 formulated products that represent 428 different active ingredients. The system sums the toxicity units of each application in a crop season to finally calculate a total value.

 

Ferraro noted that the software does not measure the real impact (such as the level of mortality of the organisms, the concentration of pesticides in the environment or the effects of bad application practices). RIPEST is capable of evaluating the probability of impact (or risk) because of the used pesticides and the dose. 

 

"RIPEST locates a value of risk estimated under four categories (high, high medium, low medium, and low). The model user can evaluate the risk associated to the chosen pesticides. The idea is that farmer or technician complements the results with other efficiency evaluations in the control of the considered pest. Thus, at equal efficiency in the desired control, the system can help to choose a practice based on the lower ecotoxicological risk”, said Ferraro.

 

The researcher warned that there is an important difference between the toxicological risk and hazard: "There are products that can be dangerous in themselves, but the risk is associated with the likelihood that it will generate damage. In the case of pesticides, it could be a very toxic product, but if a low dose is used, the risk is low, or vice-versa. This is an important aspect that allows us to determine the model used".

 

Ferraro also said that RIPEST will be useful in the current context of problematic weeds. "The appearance of resistant weeds because of systematic and almost exclusive use of glyphosate, is provoking new changes in technology package which start to re-include products in the 70's and 80's with higher risks of ecotoxicity".