Donald Dunbar

SAC Consulting

Projects

Project Lead: Fiona Burnett
The use of pesticides to control plant pests and diseases is a key management intervention across plant health sectors, particularly in agriculture, horticulture, and commercial forestry. Pesticide withdrawals through legislation, coupled with increased insensitivity, have emerged as key concerns for Scottish plant health stakeholders. To meet this stakeholder need, the PHC commissioned a project to quantify the impacts on Scottish plant health arising from pesticide withdrawals and set this in the context and time frame of alternative management tools (PHC2018/15: Potential Impacts Arising from Pesticide Withdrawals to Scotland’s Plant Health). The key outcomes from this project are that for all the plant health sectors (as above and including natural environment) the withdrawal of key substances will have a significant impact on the ability to manage pests, weeds, and diseases effectively and economically. For soft fruit and field vegetables in particular, production will be significantly affected and may become uneconomic. This project builds on data and results from this previous PHC project and will use case studies to understand likely impacts and their mitigation.

Publications

Forestry, Horticulture, Agriculture, Environment | Final Report and Policy Document

PHC2020/09: Economic Impact of Pesticide Withdrawals to Scotland, with Case Studies

March 2021

Chemical forms of plant protection are widely used in Scottish agricultural, horticultural and forestry production plus for amenity and natural environment management purposes.  The availability and use of active substances in pesticides are closely regulated and increasing concern over human health and environmental impacts has led to a greater likelihood that some existing approvals will be withdrawn and/or that approvals for new products will not be granted.  Potential impacts from withdrawal of these pesticides are of policy interest and this summary report builds on the data and results from project PHC2018/15 (Potential impacts arising from pesticide withdrawals to Scotland’s plant health) and uses case studies to understand the likely magnitude and distribution of potential impacts and how they may be mitigated.