In this article, Bernd Hommel, Bernd Freier, Jörn Strassemeyer and Dietmar Rossberg from the Julius Kühn-Institut in Kleinmachnow, Berlin, all key figures in the development of pesticide legislation and IPM implementation in Germany, provide an overview of current and future actions.

The use of pesticides in Germany is regulated in a comprehensive manner designed to provide a high level of safety and protection. The pesticide approval process, regulations on the sale and use of pesticides, and requirements for pesticide manufacturers, distributors, professional users, advisers and competent authorities, contained in both the Plant Protection Law and other areas of law relating to plant protection, are the principle instruments for pesticide regulation.

At the core of Germany's national implementation of the changes detailed in the European Commission's 'pesticides package' are the new German Plant Protection Act and its accompanying regulations, which are expected in 2011 or 2012. The current German National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP), which has been in force since 2008, is under review and will be revised to accommodate the provisions of the Sustainable Use Directive 2009/128/EC.

Key tools in Germany’s NAP

The NEPTUN survey project  on pesticide use:

• Randomly chosen farms are used to gather information about pesticide use, quantified as Treatment Frequency Index (TFI, a measure of the intensity of pesticide use).
• All reports can be downloaded from the German NAP homepage.

The Reference Farms Network  to provide more information about pesticide use:

• A project that surveys 85 farms with a total of more than 700 fields provides data on pesticide use in primary crops and other information relevant to crop protection.
• All pesticide treatments are evaluated to determine the actual intensity of pesticide use (based on the TFI) and the 'necessary minimum' of pesticide use, which is determined by experts in the plant protection services. (This new concept of ‘necessary minimum’ will be further examined in a forthcoming article on this website.)
• The 'necessary minimum' is a term or even an indicator used to describe the amount of a pesticide needed to ensure that crops are successful, not least in regard to their economic viability.
• Data on pesticide use is then compared to the 'necessary minimum' in order to visualise how far away the reference farms are from this level (see Table 1).
• Results indicate that only 10-15% of all applications can contribute to lowering pesticide use, in other words, they are above the 'necessary minimum'.

Table 1. Percentage of pesticide uses corresponding to the 'necessary minimum' in the Reference Farms Network.

The Demonstration Farms Network  to demonstrate crop or sector specific guidelines for IPM:

• The Demonstration Farms Network was launched in November 2010.
• Based on IPM guidelines, these farms demonstrate IPM 'best practices' aimed at minimising risk and dependency in pesticide use. The network is coordinated by JKI.
• Budget: €600,000 per year until 2016. Farms are supported economically to invest in methods, equipment and to compensate production risks.
• From 2013, more than 20 demonstration farms covering most of Germany will participate in the Network.

The risk indicator SYNOPS  to annually monitor risk associated with pesticide use and identify hot spots

The SYNOPS model (Synoptic Evaluation Model for Pesticides) is used to measure progress towards the NAP's goal of a 25% reduction in risk by 2020 by estimating relative changes in potential risks to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems associated with the use of pesticides.

A variety of data sources are used in SYNOPS to assess pesticide use. Application strategies are derived from NEPTUN surveys or from the Reference Farms Network for regional risk analysis. Domestic pesticide sales volumes are used for risk assessments at the national level.

SYNOPS is used to link this data with known characteristics of the pesticide products, as specified in their registrations and instructions for use. After detailed consideration of the uses of a given pesticide, the model calculates the bioavailability parameters of the pesticide in three areas: soil, field margins and surface waters.

The calculated exposure parameters are correlated with the eco-toxicological effects of the active substance on a given target organism. Table 2 shows annual progress towards the 25% goal since 2006. It seems that fungicide use is the greatest constraint on reaching the 25% target.

Table 2. Trends in pesticide risk according to SYNOPS for aquatic and terrestrial reference organisms in Germany since 2006 (baseline: statistical means from 1996 to 2005; source: http://nap.jki.bund.de).

Implementation of IPM

From 1987, German plant protection legislation has taken the concept and principles of IPM into account, stating that all farmers should apply good agricultural practice which, among other things, means that the principles of IPM should be taken into consideration.

IPM is implemented through the NAP. The Demonstration Farms Network is one pillar, but the most important is the development of crop or sector specific guidelines on IPM. These guidelines are designed to provide farmers with sufficient information to grow crops according to the principles of IPM.

Currently, guidelines for fruit, wine and agricultural crops are under development. The guidelines will have to be approved by the steering committee for the German NAP. There is no intention of turning the IPM guidelines into law, but rather to provide farmers with solid growing instructions and recommendations that they can follow on the farm.