New way to measure pesticide use in France angers green groups

A new way of measuring pesticide use in France is to be introduced by the government but has already faced criticism from environmentalists amid accusations of caving in to farmers' demands.

The government’s plan Ecophyto 2030 was unveiled in early May after previous strategies to crack down on chemicals in agriculture came unstuck. 

It was one of the issues raised by farmers during their protests in February, prompting the government to “pause” the scheme.

This, in turn, upset environmentalists, who accused the government of announcing headline-grabbing green projects but failing to actually implement them.

Same target, different method

Under new proposals, which the government hopes to get on the statute books before the summer holidays, the 50% target will be kept but the method of counting pesticide use will change.

Originally, France used its own counting system called Nodu (nombre de doses unités), while the European Union uses a system called HRI-1 (Harmonised Risk Indicator), which allows comparisons across Europe.

HRI-1 also takes into account how dangerous each pesticide is, giving the worst scores for the most toxic substances.

Using HRI-1 scores, farmers are already using 30% fewer pesticides than in 2013-2015, both because they are spraying less and because the government has banned some of the most dangerous pesticides.

However, experts warn that hitting the remaining 20% of the target will be much harder, and farmers’ representatives are not ruling out further protests.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, have accused the government of using creative accounting to meet targets and abandoning concerns about health and the environment.

Read more: Pesticide poison victims in France asked to join legal action

Pesticide use in France 

In particular, scientist members of the Ecophyto advisory boards published a paper saying HRI-1 does not reflect the use of small amounts of very powerful substances which are dangerous to the environment and health.

France is regularly accused of being the biggest user of pesticides in Europe because its market share in cash terms is the largest.

This is largely due to having more agricultural land than smaller countries, and lots of grape vines and other fruit trees that need spraying with fungicides for a longer period in the growing season than most field crops.

In total France buys 20% of all pesticides sold in the EU.

However, when comparisons are made based on kilograms of pesticide sprayed per hectare of agricultural land, France is just above the European average.

Figures gathered by Statistica in 2021 (published in 2024) show France used 3.7kg of pesticides per hectare.

The Netherlands uses by far the most under this measure, with 10.9kg per hectare, followed by Ireland with 7.1kg per hectare and Belgium with 6.4kg per hectare.

Romania is the country using the least under the measure, with 0.6kg per hectare.