Impact of agrotechnologies on soil residues of plant protection substances

The scope of the study is to provide data for the assessment of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) agri-environmental measure impacts regarding the use of plant protection products. In 2023, most soil samples were taken from study areas, which were also under study in 2019 and 2021, the aim was to get a more comprehensive overview of dynamics in time of the active substances of plant protection products. Samples taken from the field soils were mostly covered with the agri-environment (AE) basic scheme. Environmentally friendly farming (48 study areas) and nine soil samples were taken from the field of conventional farming (no AE supports).

The study demonstrated that in 2023, both the number of identified plant protection product active substances and the total content decreased (mg/kg). At the same time, it should be noted that although the total content of active ingredients in plant protection products has decreased over the years, the amount per sample has remained the same. As in previous years, Glyphosate (39 findings) and its metabolite AMPA (60 findings) are the most prevalent active substances among plant protection products, both in terms of concentration and frequency of occurrence, indicating intensive use of these substances on arable land.

In 2017-2020, fungicides accounted for the highest proportion of active substances in plant protection products, but for the third year in a row, fewer fungicides were found, and the proportion of herbicides increased significantly to 56% of all plant protection residues in 2023.