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Fungicides in Europe During the Twenty-first Century: a Comparative Assessment Using Agri-environmental Indices of EU27

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Abstract

A reliable and comparative fungicide index (FI) was assessed to describe the fungicide use in the agricultural land of Europe during the first 20 years of the twenty-first century (from 2000 to 2018). FI is not uniform across EU27. The highest mean value (1.34 kg ha−1) of FI was observed in Southern Europe compared to the other sub-regions of the EU, while this variation existed mainly due to the inorganic fungicide use. The mean value of inorganic fungicide index (FIinorg) in agricultural land area (AL) in Southern Europe was 1.69 kg ha−1, about three times higher than the average value (0.63 kg ha−1) across the EU. The higher mean values of organic fungicide index (FIorg) in conventional agricultural land area (convAL) was observed in Western Europe (0.54 kg ha−1), while an upward trend was observed in the FIorg mainly in Central and Eastern and Northern Europe during the period 2000–2018. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of 19 agri-environmental indicators (FI, FIorg, FIinorg, agricultural land use, crop groups, fungicide chemical families) was assessed to describe this differentiation of the four geographical sub-regions of EU. Despite the linear growth of the organic farmland area, the fungicide use in the agricultural land remained relatively stable, while the larger the farm size (ha), the greater the amounts (kg of a.s.) of fungicides which were used in the cropland of EU. The impact assessment of each variable which was examined on the FI could contribute to the implementation of European agricultural policy, reducing in this way the environmental impact.

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Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from programme MEDICUS of the University of Patras “ΜΟΔΥ ΕΛΚΕ”, research.upatras.gr; under Grant Agreement No 81667—programme MEDICUS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration of Food & Agricultural Enterprises, University of Patras, G. Seferi 2, 30100, Agrinio, Greece

    Vassilios Triantafyllidis & Antonios Pittaras

  2. Department of Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering, University of Patras, Nea Ktiria, 30200, Mesolonghi, Greece

    Chariklia Kosma & Anastasios Zotos

  3. Department of Food Science & Technology, University of Patras, Ch. Trikoupi, 30100, Agrinio, Greece

    Ioannis Konstantinos Karabagias & George Kehayias

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  1. Vassilios Triantafyllidis
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  2. Chariklia Kosma
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  3. Ioannis Konstantinos Karabagias
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  4. Anastasios Zotos
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  5. Antonios Pittaras
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Vassilios Triantafyllidis; methodology: Vassilios Triantafyllidis, Chariklia Kosma; formal analysis and investigation: Vassilios Triantafyllidis, Chariklia Kosma, Ioannis Konstantinos Karabagias, Anastasios Zotos, Antonios Pittaras, George Kehayias; writing—original draft preparation: Vassilios Triantafyllidis, Chariklia Kosma, Ioannis Konstantinos Karabagias, Antonios Pittaras; writing—review and editing: Anastasios Zotos, George Kehayias, Vassilios Triantafyllidis; funding acquisition: Vassilios Triantafyllidis; resources: Vassilios Triantafyllidis, George Kehayias; supervision: Vassilios Triantafyllidis.

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Triantafyllidis, V., Kosma, C., Karabagias, I. et al. Fungicides in Europe During the Twenty-first Century: a Comparative Assessment Using Agri-environmental Indices of EU27. Water Air Soil Pollut 233, 52 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05529-5

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