What are the benefits of pesticides?
Health - Pesticides help to provide us with a choice of fruits and vegetables of high quality and sufficient availability all year round . A diet rich in fruits and vegetables helps prevent cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. To reap those benefits, the World Health Organisation recommends eating 400g of fruits and vegetables per day. Pesticides play a key role in keeping the price of food affordable so that families of all income ranges can afford it. The UK Food Standards Agency states “by protecting crops, pesticides help to provide a plentiful supply of food all the year round. If pesticides were not used, this could affect the availability and prices of food”.
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Meeting demand and avoiding wastage - Pesticides ensure a healthy crop and limit crop losses by keeping crops free of pests and diseases as they grow and during storage and transportation. For some foods, such as potatoes, the losses of yield would reach up to 75% if no pesticide were used. (See E.-C. OERKE, Crop losses to pest, Journal of Agricultural Science (2006), 144, 31–43. f 2005 Cambridge University Press ).
Over 35% of the world’s food supply would be lost without the use of crop protection products. There will be 1.5 billion more mouths to feed by 2020. Pesticides will help to ensure that the productivity of the land can feed these people sustainability.
Crops that are physically damaged can have reduced nutritional value. For example, apples affected by scab have lower levels of sugars, malic acids, minerals and vitamins; cereals damaged by mildew, rust, Septoria blotch, or competition from weeds have reduced starch, protein and mineral levels.
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Environment - Pesticides, whilst providing healthy yields and enabling farmers to respond to increasing food demands of the growing population , also help limit the area of land used for agriculture, thereby reducing the pressure to encroach on other lands, whether wetlands, nature areas or forests, reducing incentive for deforestation for example.
Providing a healthy diet affordable for all -
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Meeting demand and avoiding wastage - Pesticides ensure a healthy crop and limit crop losses by keeping crops free of pests and diseases as they grow and during storage and transportation. For some foods, such as potatoes, the losses of yield would reach up to 75% if no pesticide were used. (See E.-C. OERKE, Crop losses to pest, Journal of Agricultural Science (2006), 144, 31–43. f 2005 Cambridge University Press ).
Over 35% of the world’s food supply would be lost without the use of crop protection products. There will be 1.5 billion more mouths to feed by 2020. Pesticides will help to ensure that the productivity of the land can feed these people sustainability.
Crops that are physically damaged can have reduced nutritional value. For example, apples affected by scab have lower levels of sugars, malic acids, minerals and vitamins; cereals damaged by mildew, rust, Septoria blotch, or competition from weeds have reduced starch, protein and mineral levels.
Click here to learn more about potato pests and
Environment - Pesticides, whilst providing healthy yields and enabling farmers to respond to increasing food demands of the growing population , also help limit the area of land used for agriculture, thereby reducing the pressure to encroach on other lands, whether wetlands, nature areas or forests, reducing incentive for deforestation for example.
Providing a healthy diet affordable for all -
