Report from the Sub-committee on Production, Economics and Employment.

Contents

Preface

1 Introduction

2  Description of pesticide consumption in the agricultural sector
2.1  Introduction
2.2  Pesticide consumption in the agricultural sector
2.3  Pesticide consumption in market gardening and forestry
2.4  Summary

3  Fundamental considerations concerning regulation of pesticide consumption in the agricultural sector
3.1  Introduction
3.2  Prioritisation and goal
3.2.1  The political objective
3.2.2  Valuation of pesticide externalities
3.2.3  The precautionary principle
3.3  Regulation of pesticide consumption
3.3.1  Regulatory basis
3.3.2  Regulatory instruments
3.3.3  Assessment

4  The problem and the choice of method of analysis
4.1  Introduction
4.2  Economic analyses - experience
4.3  Method of analysis – regulation of pesticide usage in agriculture
4.3.1  Crop rotation analyses
4.3.2  Economic analyses at farm level
4.3.3  Sectoral and socioeconomic analyses
4.4  Evaluation of the concept of analysis

5  Results
5.1  Introduction
5.2  The economics of regulating the use of pesticides in agriculture
5.2.1  Choice of scenarios
5.2.2  Zero and plus scenarios
5.2.3  Effect of different treatment frequency indices
5.2.4 Price sensitivity of the analyses
5.2.5  Pesticide usage and cultivation risk
5.3  Market gardening and forestry
5.3.1 Market gardening
5.3.2  Forestry
5.3.3  Assessment
5.4  Economic valuation of environmental improvements
5.4.1 Savings within drinking water supply
5.4.2 Valuation of health risks
5.4.3 Biodiversity
5.4.4  Summary

6  Summary and conclusions

References