Main page content

The aim of research
To develop a methodology for assessing the pesticide loads caused by the agricultural sector with further identification of risks by groups of active substances, crops and plant protection products in order to make a proposal to reduce the load of pesticides.

The tasks of project:

To collect available information on common practices in the use of PPP in different regions, on different farm sizes, for different crops, to establish a baseline for the use of PPP by crop group, and to develop recommendations for further reductions in the use of PPP
To conduct efficacy trials in wheat crops to compare different spray schedules and different application rates of regulators, fungicides, herbicides
To inform the PPP users on the optimal spray conditions in crops using different types of spray nozzles to reduce spray drift and on good agricultural practices

Results

Data for the spring-summer season of 2023 were analyzed and crop groups with the largest use of PPP resulting environmental load were identified. In general, the use of PPP look reasonable and considered from an agronomic point of view. The volumes of sales and use of herbicides are the highest, which indicates that alternative methods of weed control need to be put into practice. The most widely used chloride of chlormequat causes a certain burden on the environment, so a solution should be sought to replace that substance with another less harmful substance, or new lodging and disease-resistant varieties should be introduced in Latvia. Comparing the use of different active substances in different crops, the largest amount is used in field beans, winter wheat, peas, oats, summer wheat and summer oilseed rape. Field trials were conducted over three-year (2021-2024) in farmer’s fields situated in the Central region of Latvia for to evaluate various fungicide and biological product application schemes for the control of leaf blotches, with wheat sown following preceding crops of either wheat or oilseed rape; to find out how to reduce the pesticide load index (PLI) of growth regulators in winter wheat at different rates of nitrogen fertilization (N180-N150-N120) while maintaining sufficient anti-lodge efficiency and to evaluate herbicide application schemes to find out whether it is possible to reduce PPP consumption by reducing the number of herbicide applications during the crop growing period, maintaining a high yield and its quality.

The results of the three-year (2021–2023) trials were presented at the Scientific-Practical Conference "SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE 2024":

Rancāne R., Zagorska V., Vilka L., Šutka A. “Effectiveness of Plant Growth Regulators and Load Index under Different Nitrogen Fertilization in Winter Wheat Fields" (in Latvian)
"SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE 2024," February 22–23, 2024, Jelgava, Latvia; Presentation.

A popular science publication has been prepared on the results of the three-year (2021–2023) trials:

Rancāne R., Zagorska V., Šutka A. (2024) Effectiveness of Plant Growth Regulators and Load Index in Winter Wheat Fields. Saimnieks, No. 5, pp. 64–68.

Efficiency of Plant Growth Regulators