Mitigating pesticide pollution in China requires law enforcement, farmer training, and technological innovation

Abstract

Abstract-To feed an ever-growing population, it is necessary to take all measures to increase crop yields, including the use of pesticides. It has long been a difficult task to boost agricultural production and simultaneously minimize the impact of pesticide application on the environment, particularly in China, a developing country with more than 1.3 billion people. China has recently become the world's leading producer and consumer of pesticides, with production and consumption reaching 265 tons and 179 tons, respectively, in 2011, and a national average pesticide application dosage of more than 14 kg/ha. The large quantities of pesticides applied in agricultural fields have resulted in serious environmental deterioration. Organochlorine pesticides, such as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane and hexachlorohexane, have become ubiquitous in the environment of China, with spatial distributions in soils and aquatic systems similar to their historic application patterns in different geographic regions: southeast > central > northwest. Pollution by current-use pesticides, for example, organophosphates and pyrethroids, has also been of great concern. To mitigate pesticide pollution in China, a significant reduction in pesticide inputs into the environment is mandatory. This can be accomplished only with joint efforts by the government, professionals, and citizens in combination with rigorous enforcement of laws and regulations, training of farmers in pesticide knowledge and environmental awareness, and technological innovation for producing low-risk pesticides and developing efficient application approaches. Restoring contaminated sites is also an urgent task. Finally, food security and environmental pollution are not problems for a sole country, and international cooperation and communication are necessary. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:963-971. # 2014 SETAC

Insecticides in sediment cores from a rural and a suburban area in South China: A reflection of shift in application patterns

“…As summarized in Table 1, the total insecticide concentrations ranged from 67.6 to 1671 and 99.2 to 231 ng/g in RLY and SGZ, respectively. The higher levels of insecticides in the RLY core were not surprising as this catchment has many small farms (b0.1 ha) where two or three seasons of rice planting and overuse of pesticides are common practice (Li et al, 2014b). Pyrethroids were the most predominant insecticides in the RLY core, accounting for 59.2-97.6% of insecticide abundance regardless of sediment depth, while OCPs were the main constituent in SGZ (74.9-99.2%).…”

“…One core was sampled from a rural river in Longyan, Fujian (RLY, 24 o 56′49″N, 116 o 26′38″E). This river is surrounded by rice fields and has seen heavy use of pesticides for pest control (Li et al, 2014b). The other core was sampled from a suburban river near Guangzhou, Guangdong (SGZ, 23 o 03′33″N, 113 o 20′23″E).…”

“…Pesticide consumption has been shown to be proportional to local gross domestic production (GDP) (Li et al, 2014b). Guangzhou was and continues to be more developed than Longyan.…”

“…Poor economic conditions in the past have limited pesticide use in this area, however starting in the 1990s, much of South China saw increases in industrial jobs, and as such many people from underdeveloped areas moved to nearby cities. Consequently, these underdeveloped areas, such as Longyan, saw decreases in population with improved economic conditions (Zhu et al, 2011;Li et al, 2014b). With improved economic conditions along with a lack of available labor, perhaps not surprisingly, the farmers' willingness and economic ability to use more pesticides increased, explaining the sudden rise of insecticide concentrations in the rural core (RLY) in the 1990s (Fig.…”

“…The global use of pesticides continues to rise, as well as their ecological risks (Köhler and Triebskorn, 2013;Li et al, 2014aLi et al, , 2014b. Pesticides may reach surface water through various pathways, such as atmospheric deposition, surface runoff, and sewage drainage (Lin et al, 2008;Jiang and Gan, 2012).…”