Figure 2-12. Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer use in Europe and the Baltic States. Source: FAO statistics

arise from multiple treatments on cropped areas as the area sown remained relatively static. The number of pesticide treatments applied per hectare per year increased from two to nearly nine (Chapman et al., 1977; Davis et al., 1990; Garthwaite et al., 1996, 2000, 2004; Sly, 1977, 1986). In the US, where agriculture typically encompasses 75 to 80% of total use of conventional pesticides, the growth of pes­ticide use through the 1950s and 1960s was primarily due to the greater application of herbicides (Kiely et al., 2004). Herbicide use peaked around 1980, with atrazine being the most used active ingredient for many years, but by 2001 it was overtaken by glyphosate as a result of the wide adop­tion of glyphosate-tolerant crops. Most US producers of major crops now scout for damaging insects (NASS, 2006) and only apply insecticides when the defined thresholds are exceeded and when the projected savings from yield loss will outweigh the costs of the insecticide application. Some of the decrease since 1995 is due to the use of genetically-engineered insect resistant varieties of maize and cotton (Fernandez-Cornejo and Caswell, 2006). Integrated pest management techniques are increasingly adopted and can make a significant contribution in the general reduction of insecticide use (Kogan, 1998) A number of NAE governments have promoted pro­grams to reduce pesticide use. A Canadian government program, Food Systems 2002, was launched in 1987 to reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture by 50% by the year 2002 (Gallivan et al., 2001) and achieved a 38.5% re­duction 1983-1998. The decrease came partly from smaller cropping areas, but principally from reduction in mean ap­plication rates. In the EU, a number of countries, including in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, have adopted legislation to reduce pesticide use and reductions

have been achieved, partly by the use of newer products with lower environmental footprint. The European Com­mission is now requiring countries to develop pesticide re­duction strategies.
Role of AKST
The development of pesticides has depended almost totally on scientific advances in the private sector. The majority of pesticides have been produced by multinational agrochemi-cal companies. Research by universities and public agencies (such as US Geological Survey) has improved understanding of the fate and transport of agricultural pesticides and the impacts on drinking and groundwater (Schraer et al., 2000; Thurman and Aga, 2001; Spaulding et al., 2003). The public sector has played a greater role in the regu­latory approval for pesticides for minor or specialty crops where the small markets are not large enough to warrant conducting the necessary field tests. Science and technology have also played a role in governmental regulation, as new tools and techniques, coupled with increased understand­ing of environmental consequences, have led to increasingly rigorous evaluation of new products. In the US the number of new pesticides being registered that are classified as low-risk and biopesticides (naturally occurring compounds) are now greater than the number of new conventional pesti­cides, but they remain a small proportion of the available pesticides (EPA, 2005). Agricultural science has provided tools to develop biological control agents and other non-chemical methods. The drivers of pesticide use in the NAE have been: •     The objective of increasing crop yield and quality; •     The demand from NAE markets for pest- and disease-free products leading to greater use of pesticides in