Worldwide pesticide usage and its impacts on ecosystem

Abstract

Pesticides are extensively used in modern agriculture and are an effective and economical way to enhance the yield quality and quantity, thus ensuring food security for the ever-growing population around the globe. Approximately, 2 million tonnes of pesticides are utilized annually worldwide, where China is the major contributing country, followed by the USA and Argentina, which is increasing rapidly. However, by the year 2020, the global pesticide usage has been estimated to increase up to 3.5 million tonnes. lthough pesticides are beneficial for crop production point of view, extensive use of esticides can possess serious consequences because of their bio-magnification and persistent nature. Diverse pesticides directly or indirectly polluted air, water, soil and verall ecosystem which cause serious health hazard for living being. In the present manuscript, an attempt has been made to critically review the global usage of different pesticides and their major adverse impacts on ecosystem, which will provide guidance for a wide range of researchers in this area.

Full text

Vol.:(0123456789)
SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:1446 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-1485-1
Review Paper
Worldwide pesticide usage andits impacts onecosystem
AnketSharma1,2 · VinodKumar3· BabarShahzad4· MohsinTanveer4· GaganPreetSinghSidhu5· NehaHanda2,6·
SukhmeenKaurKohli2· PoonamYadav2· AditiShreeyaBali7· RipuDamanParihar8· OwiasIqbalDar9·
KirpalSingh9· ShivamJasrotia9· PalakBakshi2· M.Ramakrishnan10· SandeepKumar11· RenuBhardwaj2·
AshwaniKumarThukral2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Abstract
Pesticides are extensively used in modern agriculture and are an eective and economical way to enhance the yield qual-
ity and quantity, thus ensuring food security for the ever-growing population around the globe. Approximately, 2 million
tonnes of pesticides are utilized annually worldwide, where China is the major contributing country, followed by the USA
and Argentina, whichis increasing rapidly. However, by the year 2020, the global pesticide usage has been estimated
to increase up to 3.5 million tonnes. Although pesticides are benecial for crop production point of view, extensive use
of pesticides can possess serious consequences because of their bio-magnication and persistent nature. Diverse pes-
ticides directly or indirectly polluted air, water, soil and overall ecosystem which cause serious health hazard for living
being. In the present manuscript, an attempt has been made to critically review the global usage of dierent pesticides
and their major adverse impacts on ecosystem, which will provide guidance for a wide range of researchers in this area.
Keywords Global pesticide usage· Pesticide application· Pesticide bio-magnication· Pesticide ecotoxicology
1 Introduction
Pesticides are the chemicals (natural or synthetic)
employed in various agricultural practices to control pests,
weeds and diseases in plants. Pesticides include a wide
range of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides,
nematicides, etc. In the process of agricultural develop-
ment, pesticides became a vital tool for plant protection
and for enhancing crop yield. Approximately, 45% of the
annual food production is lost due to pest infestation;
therefore, eective pest management by using wide range
of pesticides is required to confront pests and to increase
the crop production [1]. However, in the last half of the
nineteenth century, robust growth in the world economy
including both industrial and agricultural sectors has led
to the progressive mount in the generation and utiliza-
tion of agriculture-based chemicals which often induce
calamitous eects on the environment. Injudicious use of
pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants in agri-
cultural soils have devastated future repercussions. The
Received: 31 May 2019 / Accepted: 11 October 2019 / Published online: 21 October 2019
Anket Sharma, Vinod Kumar and Babar Shahzad have contributed equally to this work.
* Anket Sharma, anketsharma@gmail.com | 1State Key Laboratory ofSubtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou311300,
China. 2Plant Stress Physiology Lab, Department ofBotanical andEnvironmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar,
Punjab143005, India. 3Department ofBotany, DAV University, Sarmastpur,Jalandhar, Punjab144012, India. 4School ofLand andFood,
University ofTasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia. 5Department ofApplied Sciences, UIET, Chandigarh160014, India. 6Department
ofBotany, School ofBioengineering andBiosciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab144411, India. 7Department
ofBotany, M.C.M. DAV College forWomen, Chandigarh160036, India. 8Department ofZoology, DAV University, Sarmastpur,Jalandhar,
Punjab144012, India. 9Department ofZoology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar143005, India. 10Division ofPlant Biotechnology,
Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Chennai, India. 11Department ofEnvironmental Sciences, DAV University,
Sarmastpur,Jalandhar, Punjab144012, India.
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