Why do we need pesticides?

Keeping food on the table

Pesticides (also known as crop protection products) control the pests that threaten our food supply. In the developed world, we can choose from a wide variety of foods from all over the world. We expect - demand even - that this food is fresh, of high quality, free from disease and insect damage or any possible contamination.

We also expect it to be available when we want it. However, if crop protection products disappeared overnight we would notice the difference very quickly. Crops compete with 30,000 species of weeds, 3,000 species of nematodes and 10,000 species of plant-eating insects. We know that despite the use of modern crop protection products 20-40% of potential food production is still lost every year to pests. These losses can occur while the crop is growing in the field, when it is in storage and in the home.

An ongoing development of new pesticides is essential to manage the occurrence of resistance of pests.

Simply put, an adequate, reliable food supply cannot be guaranteed without the use of crop protection products.

Healthy food for all

In the developed world, we also draw significant economic and social benefits from pesticides. They have brought the price of fresh fruit and vegetables - now known to protect against coronary heart disease and cancer - within the reach of even the poorest families and they have freed millions from the drudgery of hand weeding. By helping to keep farming profitable, they also contribute immensely to the maintenance of rural communities.

Helping the developing world

Meanwhile, food shortages and poor diet remain a severe problem in much of the developing world. United Nations figures show that the global population is rising at a rate of more than 250,000 a day and that the growth rate is unlikely to slow down until well into the next century. Far from being over, the global population explosion continues, adding more than 80 million people a year to the total. Where shall we find all this extra food? The earth is finite and good cropland is a declining resource, increasingly under threat from soil erosion and urbanisation. If we are to feed the increasing world population there are only two options:

• either we bring more land into cultivation, thereby severely reducing wildlife habitat
• or we find ways of increasing the yield from existing cropland.

If we want to save as much of the tropical rain forests and other species-rich habitats as possible, we must choose to increase yields. This is why we need crop protection products.