Sweden's reduced risk pesticide policy

Ten years on, Anders Emmerman reports on the successes of the Swedish programme to reduce the risks associated with pesticides. As it nears its final stages, he sets out the policy initiatives which will take Swedish Agriculture to the year 2000 and beyond.

In 1986, Sweden adopted a programme to reduce the health and environmental risks from pesticides used in agriculture (see PN 14 p12-14 and PN 33 p7). A major part of this initiative was to reduce the amount of pesticides used by 50% within five years. We achieved this initial target, and by 1990 the Parliament adopted a new bill requiring an additional 50% reduction. This would mean by 1996 pesticide usage would be a quarter of that used by weight of active ingredient at the beginning of the programme.
    The programme also required the regulatory authority, KEMI (National Chemicals Inspectorate) to extract more stringent toxicity and environmental fate data from those marketing pesticides. Since 1986, KEMI has suspended the use of 37 active ingredients due to health or environmental reasons (see table).

Pest control options
Swedish cereal research has shown best yields are obtained if half the recommended dose is used 'at a 70-75% herbicidal efficiency'. Crop stress and therefore lower yields can occur if an unnecessarily high herbicide dose is applied. It is important to keep the level of weed seeds low. If alternative controls, or crop rotation is not adopted, a low herbicide dose rate every year will achieve this. This is a key strategy for herbicide reduction.
    The development of integrated pest management (IPM) has played an increasingly important role in all pest and disease control, resulting in a decrease in chemical inputs. Pest population levels are subject to many variable factors, such as the prevailing weather conditions. As a result, compared to herbicide inputs, insecticide and fungicide use in previous seasons has less bearing on subsequent population levels.

Results of the programme
The Swedish government provides annual sales and usage (by weight) figures for pesticides used in agriculture and horticulture. Between 1986 and 1993 there was an overall reduction in usage of 65%. This meant that about 3,000 tonnes less of active ingredient were used in 1993 than the average used between 1981 and 1985.

Measures to reduce use
The activities in Sweden are similar to those adopted in some other European Union countries such as Denmark and Holland, and the aim is to achieve a decrease not only in usage but also in risk and dependence.

• Mandatory training: since 1990 all farm workers have been required to obtain a certificate of professional use.

• Regional plant protection centres: Five regional centres promote IPM among state, local authority and commercial pest control extension officers.

• Advisory services for the reduced use of pesticides: This has involved demonstration trials, farm courses and individual advice.

• Voluntary tests on spray machines: A programme has been in operation since 1988. Grants are given to farmers (about 1,000 Swedish Krona [SEK] [US$ 150] per test) or companies (50% of the cost, maximum 50,000 SEK [US$ 7,500]) towards purchase and repair of test equipment. Since 1998 about 11,000 sprayers have been tested and 200 examiners been trained. Currently 1,400 tests are carried out per year.

• Taxing pesticides: At present Sweden has an environmental tax of 20 SEK [US$ 3] per kg of active ingredient which is about 7.5% of the purchase price. A price regulation tax was introduced in 1986 but was abolished in 1992. It was based on the dose rate used per hectare. Despite being unpopular, taxes can influence the use of pesticides and can be a resource to finance pesticide reduction measures.

Costs of pesticide reduction
It is difficult to calculate exactly the costs of the programme because many activities involve the resources of a wide range of authorities. The Swedish Board of Agriculture alone spent SEK 21 million [US$ 3.2 million] on the programme in 1993/94. Of this, regional plant protection centres received SEK 8.5 million, the advisory service SEK 3 million, research and development SEK 8 million, and voluntary sprayer tests SEK 1.5 million.

No more reduction targets
Over the last decade, the impact of pesticides on agriculture has remained an important issue at the top the Swedish political agenda. Swedish farmers have been willing participants in the process. In order to build on their successes, the Swedish Board of Agriculture and KEMI have recently put forward proposals to the government requesting the risk reduction programme continues up to 2001. These measures would not include a further quantitative goal of reducing pesticide active ingredient. Instead, KEMI proposes to develop an index system which will be able to provide a semi-quantitative estimate of risk reduction achieved in both the old and the new programme.  

Anders Emmerman works for the Swedish Board of Agriculture, S-551 Jonkoping, Sweden.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 34, December 1996, page 6]