Agriculture is a dominant component of the global economy, and the pressure
to produce enough food for the world's ever growing population has had a
worldwide impact on agricultural practices. The challenge of securing a
sufficient food supply was highlighted in Agenda 21 of the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. As a result, the use of
fertilizers and pesticides has steadily increased over the years to ensure and
sustain high crop yields.
Pesticides can have adverse non-target effects especially in the hydrologic
system. Water is the primary pathway by which pesticides are transported from
their application areas into the environment. Once pesticides are displaced,
they can be widely dispersed into streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and
oceans.
Agriculture is both a cause and a victim of water pollution. It is a cause
through the discharge of pollutants (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.) to surface
and/or groundwater. It is a victim through contaminated water being used for
irrigation, for example. The economical, social, environmental and public health
implications due to decreasing water quality are a common worldwide threat.
Surface waters not only supply a large amount of drinking water to populations,
they are also vital aquatic ecosystems that provide important environmental and
economic benefits. Fresh water is predicted to become the principal limitation
for sustainable development within this century .
Preventing and controlling pollution of water resources, both surface and
underground, is a government function that has lead to the adoption of a variety
of legislative approaches. Legislation has mainly dealt with the control of
"point source" pollution, i.e., pollution that can be tracked to a
specific entry point with sufficient accuracy, such as industrial discharges,
domestic sewage or municipal wastewater effluents or treatment plants. Reduction
of "non-point source" pollution, on the other hand, can be achieved
through the application of precautionary measures, including Good Agricultural
Practices (GAPs) and through adherence to national requirements on the use and
applications of pesticides in the field.
In order to be able to support the control of water pollution, quality data
are needed: one can only base management decisions on reliable and
scientifically sound measurements. Effective monitoring schemes are necessary to
identify specific pollutants, their sources and occurrences, to develop
preventive measures, and to assess the efficacy of corrective actions.
Developing countries face many problems in establishing appropriate monitoring
schemes to evaluate surface water pollution by pesticides, and in producing
valid analytical results.
With respect to contaminants in water, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
stated that "there is the need for long-term monitoring studies which
include a larger number of pesticides and their transformation products".
The major difficulty, as pointed out by Ongley (1994) is that "a common
observation amongst water quality professionals is that many water quality
programmes, especially in developing countries, collect the wrong parameters,
from the wrong places, using the wrong substrates and at inappropriate sampling
frequencies, and produce data that are often quite unreliable".
Difficulties in developing monitoring schemes arise because pesticide
concentrations in surface waters follow strong seasonal patterns that result
from the timing of pesticide applications and runoff conditions (rainfall, soil
permeability, soil infiltration rate, interflow, etc.). In water, pesticides may
be transported as dissolved material or by adhering to suspended matter, such as
particulates and sediments. Therefore not only water, but also particulates and
sediments, should be considered as part of the research project.
Studies on "non-point source" pollution showed that the primary
transfer mechanism from land to water of nutrients, sediments and pesticides is
runoff (FAO, 1996); however air drift of pesticides, applied in the fields, can
also contaminate streams and waterways.
Rainfall, following a pesticide application in the field, may result in
runoff and a pulse of high pesticide concentration continuing downstream until
it eventually reaches a lake or a containment area. In lakes or basins, the
concentration of stable pesticides are likely to remain elevated much longer
than in streams, because the pesticides will not be flushed from the system as
quickly, and may be observed for a long time after nearby agricultural
applications have been suspended.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO),
Australia, have developed a "Pesticide Impact Ranking Index" (PIRI)
software package to rank pesticides in terms of their relative pollution
potential to soils, ground and surface water, and to compare different land uses
in catchment areas in terms of their relative impact on water quality. The PIRI
software will be used to process data on the application of pesticides in the
field to assess the pollution risks to surface and groundwater. Data on
concentrations of pesticides gathered through water monitoring will be used to
validate the PIRI risk assessments and expand the scope of the software to a
variety of agro-ecological zones.
To produce evidence of Good Agricultural Practices, well documented
pesticides application records would need to be made available to CRP
participants by agricultural extension services or farmers associations. In this
respect, FAO through AGP, should be able to help in identifying relevant
Stakeholders.
This CRP proposal addresses the use of agrochemicals to provide an adequate
and safe food supply whilst ensuring environmental sustainability under the
agricultural production system applied. One tool that can be developed through
this CRP is to indirectly assess the effects of Good Agricultural Practices used
in the field by monitoring pesticide contamination of surface waters.
One of the key recommendations from the Food and Environmental Protection
Sub-programme's 2005 consultants' meeting on "The Role of Analytical
Laboratories in the Application of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in the
Production of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables and Animals and Animal Products"
was to strengthen the capabilities of laboratories and laboratory networks in
assessing the implementation of GAP for internal and external markets.
This CRP will contribute to the Joint FAO/IAEA project on "Technologies
and Capacity Building to Identify Good Agricultural Practices for the Management
of Food and Environmental Hazards" (E3.02) which focuses on the development
of principles, indicators and guidelines for agricultural practices that promote
food safety and quality and environmental sustainability.
Close linkages will be fostered with activities of the Soil and Water
Management and Crop Nutrition Section which is working on tools and approaches
to address runoff and erosion at the catchment scale, and is also developing a
new program (E.1.08) on "Technologies and practices for efficient
agricultural water use and conservation".
The overall objective of this CRP is to help member states develop means of
sustainable agricultural development, through the assessment of the
effectiveness of GAPs.
Activity 1: Planning phase
Activity 2: First Research Coordination Meeting (RCM) in Costa Rica from 9-13 July 2007
Activity 3: First experimental period
Activity 4: Second RCM
Activity 5: Second experimental period
Activity 6: Third RCM
Activity 7: Consultants services
