![]() ![]() The researchers contend that their analysis also showed that approximately 59 percent of all farms in France could reduce their use of pesticides by approximately 42 percent without harming yields. They also found that the other 23 percent of the farms were generally associated with industrial farming, which is particularly dependent on high concentrations of pesticides to sustain yields. In studying reports generated by their analysis of the farms, the researchers found that 77 percent of the farms under study showed no conflict between using smaller amounts of pesticide and yield rates. The farms were part of the Dephy network, which was created as part of the government's Ecophyto initiative to reduce pesticide use-the farms represented a wide range of farming techniques, which included using nonstandard amounts of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides-each of the farms submitted reports to the database administrators detailing chemical use on their farms, crop yields and other details of their operations. ![]() To find out, they accessed a database that held information on 946 non-organic arable commercial farms across France. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn whether the large amounts of pesticides used on farms are actually necessary to sustain yields. There is no doubt that the use of pesticides to prevent insects from eating or otherwise destroying crop plants has led to huge yield gains in many places around the globe-but its heavy use has also caused negative side effects, such as runoff into the oceans causing dead spots. ![]()
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