A review of pesticide use in global cotton production

A new report published by PAN UK, with support from the C&A Foundation, investigates the current rate of pesticide use in cotton, and examines its trends and patterns of use.
 

Recent figures on pesticide use in cotton are out of date and inaccurate
 

Cotton supports around 100 million rural families across the globe. It provides employment and income, and is the mainstay of the economies of some of the poorest countries in the world. But cotton has its problems. It has been associated with everything from forced and child labour to pesticide poisoning of farmers and their families and environmental pollution. A number of high profile initiatives have been launched to tackle these problems and they are making inroads. Many of the most egregious practices harming human health and the environment have been – or are being – addressed. But it is a work in progress and data on the level of change is sketchy.
 

The debate on pesticide use in cotton in recent years has been severely distorted by the use of figures that are out of date and inaccurate. We take a detailed look at six countries and regions who between them account for around four-fifths of the world’s cotton production: Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, India and the United States.
 

Reliable data is not readily available
 

The task has not been easy. Reliable data on global pesticide use in cotton is not readily available and is spread across multiple sources with different approaches to data collection. In this report, we have drawn on figures from the Agricultural Outlook 2016-2017 database compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Where possible, these data sets have been compared with information made publicly available from other official and/or scientific literature sources (e.g. International Cotton Advisory Council, US Department of Agriculture and other national data sources).

 

Findings show that pesticide use has not dropped as substantially as some believe
 

Findings suggest that total pesticide use in cotton has fallen since the 1980s. In particular, insecticide use has declined, as has herbicide, although neither are as significant as some have claimed and both are on the rise in some places.
 

Pest adaptation to the new transgenic GM environment is also changing the way pests are controlled, and in some cases requiring the pattern of insecticide use to be adapted.
 

Progress is not uniform: some countries have achieved and sustained significant reductions in pesticide use, while others have seen use rise. It is worthwhile noting that those countries who have been most successful at cutting pesticide use – and in keeping it low – have been those who have embraced Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
 

The lesson is clear: if it is serious about reducing pesticide use, the sector must make more use of tools like IPM and other agro-ecological approaches to control pests.
 

Download the full report here.