Assessment of total risk on non-target organisms in fungicide application for agricultural sustainability

Abstract

In Turkey, in 2010, the amount of pesticide (active ingredient; a.i.) used in agriculture was about 23,000 metric tons, of which approximately 32% was fungicides. In 2012, 14 a.i. were used for fungus control in wheat cultivation areas in Adana province, Turkey. These a.i. were: azoxystrobin, carbendazim, difenoconazole, epoxiconazole, fluquinconazole, prochloraz, propiconazole, prothioconazole, pyraclostrobin, spiroxamine, tebuconazole, thiophanate-methyl, triadimenol, and trifloxystrobin. In this study, the potential risk of a.i. on non-target organisms in fungicide application of wheat cultivation was assessed by The Pesticide Occupational and Environmental Risk (POCER) indicators. In this study, the highest human health risk was for fluquinconazole (Exceedence Factor (EF) 1.798 for human health), whereas the fungicide with the highest environmental risk was propiconazole (EF 2.000 for the environment). For non-target organisms, the highest potential risk was determined for propiconazole when applied at 0.1250 kg a.i. ha-1 (EF 2.897). The lowest total risk was for azoxystrobin when applied at 0.0650 kg a.i. ha-1 (EF 0.625).