Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.

Reducing pesticide use is one of the high-priority targets in the quest for a sustainable agriculture. Until now, most studies dealing with pesticide use reduction have compared a limited number of experimental prototypes. Here we assessed the sustainability of 48 arable cropping systems from two ma...

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Main Authors: Martin Lechenet, Vincent Bretagnolle, Christian Bockstaller, François Boissinot, Marie-Sophie Petit, Sandrine Petit, Nicolas M Munier-Jolain
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4041714?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-818cc3f631ff45029368814f5a4b2e172020-11-25T01:00:23ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0196e9792210.1371/journal.pone.0097922Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.Martin LechenetVincent BretagnolleChristian BockstallerFrançois BoissinotMarie-Sophie PetitSandrine PetitNicolas M Munier-JolainReducing pesticide use is one of the high-priority targets in the quest for a sustainable agriculture. Until now, most studies dealing with pesticide use reduction have compared a limited number of experimental prototypes. Here we assessed the sustainability of 48 arable cropping systems from two major agricultural regions of France, including conventional, integrated and organic systems, with a wide range of pesticide use intensities and management (crop rotation, soil tillage, cultivars, fertilization, etc.). We assessed cropping system sustainability using a set of economic, environmental and social indicators. We failed to detect any positive correlation between pesticide use intensity and both productivity (when organic farms were excluded) and profitability. In addition, there was no relationship between pesticide use and workload. We found that crop rotation diversity was higher in cropping systems with low pesticide use, which would support the important role of crop rotation diversity in integrated and organic strategies. In comparison to conventional systems, integrated strategies showed a decrease in the use of both pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers, they consumed less energy and were frequently more energy efficient. Integrated systems therefore appeared as the best compromise in sustainability trade-offs. Our results could be used to re-design current cropping systems, by promoting diversified crop rotations and the combination of a wide range of available techniques contributing to pest management.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4041714?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Martin Lechenet
Vincent Bretagnolle
Christian Bockstaller
François Boissinot
Marie-Sophie Petit
Sandrine Petit
Nicolas M Munier-Jolain
spellingShingle Martin Lechenet
Vincent Bretagnolle
Christian Bockstaller
François Boissinot
Marie-Sophie Petit
Sandrine Petit
Nicolas M Munier-Jolain
Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Martin Lechenet
Vincent Bretagnolle
Christian Bockstaller
François Boissinot
Marie-Sophie Petit
Sandrine Petit
Nicolas M Munier-Jolain
author_sort Martin Lechenet
title Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
title_short Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
title_full Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
title_fullStr Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
title_full_unstemmed Reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
title_sort reconciling pesticide reduction with economic and environmental sustainability in arable farming.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2014-01-01
description Reducing pesticide use is one of the high-priority targets in the quest for a sustainable agriculture. Until now, most studies dealing with pesticide use reduction have compared a limited number of experimental prototypes. Here we assessed the sustainability of 48 arable cropping systems from two major agricultural regions of France, including conventional, integrated and organic systems, with a wide range of pesticide use intensities and management (crop rotation, soil tillage, cultivars, fertilization, etc.). We assessed cropping system sustainability using a set of economic, environmental and social indicators. We failed to detect any positive correlation between pesticide use intensity and both productivity (when organic farms were excluded) and profitability. In addition, there was no relationship between pesticide use and workload. We found that crop rotation diversity was higher in cropping systems with low pesticide use, which would support the important role of crop rotation diversity in integrated and organic strategies. In comparison to conventional systems, integrated strategies showed a decrease in the use of both pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers, they consumed less energy and were frequently more energy efficient. Integrated systems therefore appeared as the best compromise in sustainability trade-offs. Our results could be used to re-design current cropping systems, by promoting diversified crop rotations and the combination of a wide range of available techniques contributing to pest management.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4041714?pdf=render
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