Agricultural pesticides (i11)

Definition: agricultural pesticides are chemical substances that are mainly used in agriculture to destroy organisms that are harmful to crops, such as fungi, insects, bacteria and plants. The harmonised risk indicator is based on the quantity of active substances contained in plant protection products placed on the market. These quantities are multiplied by risk weighting factors for different groups of active substances, as categorized in the EU Directive 2019/782 (Official Journal of the European Union, 16/05/2019). The weighting factors reflect the intrinsic hazard of the active substances. This indicator does, however, not take into account the quantities used of each plant protection product. The indicator is presented as an index relative to the average results of the period 2011-2013 (average 2011-2013 = 100). The data come from Eurostat.