FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS The FAO PESTICIDES STATISTICS DATABASE: Current Status and Future directions TASK FORCE MEETING ON PESTICIDES STATISTICS Luxembourg 6 May 2010

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS The FAOSTAT PESTICIDES STATISTICS DATABASE (faostat.fao.org)  Data collection for past three decades.  Member countries supply data on consumption and trade of pesticides through an annual questionnaire.  The pesticides consumption/sales refers to the quantity used in or sold to the agricultural sector expressed in metric tons of active ingredient.  Pesticides use/consumption database are presented for major groups of pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, plant growth regulators and rodenticides) and seed treatments.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Pesticide Data and Limitations  Country coverage and time series are incomplete due to a high level of country non-response rate.  Countries requested to report data in terms of active ingredients, however some countries may have reported in formulation weight (including diluents and adjuvants) without specific indication.  Production/Import/export statistics may not show sufficient detail as to product or compound specification. Producers are at times reluctant to disclose information required for fear that competitors might acquire strategic information.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Current FAO Agri-environmental Activities  OECD, EUROSTAT and FAO indicator convergence.  Convergence on pesticides use Indicators  Convergence on agri-environmental concepts and definitions

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Points for consideration  Data on consumption have been compiled in terms of quantity while the data on trade is available in terms of value, therefore, it is not feasible to link the these two datasets directly.  Data compiled separately for some countries by the three Organisations (Eurostat, FAO and OECD) do not reconcile.  EUROSTAT, FAO and OECD to look at ways to improve the supply of data to international organisations such as a move towards joint / common questionnaire for data collection.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS FAOSTAT pesticides datasets Contacts: