Pes­ti­cide Country

Natu­ur en Milieu

Pes­ti­cide use in the Nether­lands is among the high­est in Europe, aver­ag­ing 7 kg per hectare of agri­cul­tur­al land. Sci­en­tists and health experts warn that this heavy depen­dence threat­ens human health, bio­di­ver­si­ty, water qual­i­ty and the broad­er envi­ron­ment. Yet many of these risks remain under­es­ti­mat­ed or poor­ly under­stood with­in the farm­ing community.

Through this project, Natu­ur en Milieu will work with farm­ers and farmer organ­i­sa­tions to reduce pes­ti­cide depen­dence and pro­mote more sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture in the Nether­lands. They will assess the risks of com­mon­ly used pes­ti­cides and share find­ings with farm­ers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers and the pub­lic to inform safer prac­tices. At the same time, they will devel­op and pro­mote prac­ti­cal, nature-inclu­sive solu­tions and alter­na­tive pes­ti­cide poli­cies to sup­port farm­ers in tran­si­tion­ing to health­i­er, envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly pro­duc­tion meth­ods. By com­bin­ing research with dia­logue with­in the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, the project aims to dri­ve mean­ing­ful change in pes­ti­cide use and cre­ate a more resilient agri­cul­tur­al system.

For more information visit: https://natuurenmilieu.nl