Pesticide-free zones: how close are agricultural zones to residential homes in France?
December 06 2022In a 2019 decree, the French government defined pesticide-free zones near homes, in order to limit the exposure of local residents to pesticides. However, the total surface area of agricultural land occupied by these zones close to homes across mainland France had never been quantified. This has now been done as part of a study conducted by Nicolas Guilpart, a lecturer in agronomy at AgroParisTech and published in the journal Building and Environment.
The pesticide-free zone policy, adopted by the government in 2019, calls for a minimum safety zone of 5 to 10m around residential homes, in which no plant protection agents can be applied. These distances are, however, deemed insufficient by environmental organizations, which are demanding that they be increased to 150 m to ensure better protection for local residents. Reducing the use of pesticides is, however, often associated with lower agricultural productivity. What is the area of agricultural land potentially affected and for what crops? This is the question that a team from the Agronomy Laboratory (AgroParisTech – INRAE joint research unit) sought to answer.
To do this, the research team combined two IGN databases: the “Graphic Plot Register” which each year provides a map of all the plots cultivated in France, and the BD TOPO, which indicates the location of residential buildings. They were thereby able to identify the agricultural areas near residential homes for distances from 5 to 150 m and for 23 different types of crops.
The results, published in the journal Building and Environment, indicate that 5% of the total area of agricultural land in mainland France is situated less than 50 m from a residential home. This figure soars to 30% when we consider a distance of 150 m from residential homes. Pastures (untreated) are the main type of crop found near residential buildings, followed by cereals (wheat, maize, and barley), then rapeseed and vines. Some crops may be more affected than others by the creation of pesticide-free zones, irrespective of the distance applied. Researchers thus estimate that 32 to 45% of vines and 37 to 53% of orchards in mainland France are situated less than 150 m from a home, while this figure is only 20% for cereals. This is even more significant given that vines and orchards are among the crops most heavily treated by pesticides.
Setting up pesticide-free zones could therefore have a significant impact on agricultural production at a national level, as reducing the use of pesticides is often associated with production loss, both in terms of quantity and quality. That said, the significant presence of pesticide-treated crops near residential buildings needs to be addressed due to its potential effect on the
Reference:
Building and Environment, How much agricultural land is there close to residential areas? An assessment at the national scale in France, Nicolas Guilpart, Iris Bertin, Muriel Valantin-Morison, Corentin M. Barbu – UMR Agronomie (AgroParisTech – INRAE)