Czechia

Description

What type of agriculture is being studied in the Czech Republic?

Oil plants

What are the main characteristics of the site?

Around half (54 %) of the total area of the Czech Republic is now farmed, constituting 4.2 million hectares. Most farming here (3 million hectares, 71%) is arable. Hops are also a key crop in the Czech Republic, which is also a large producer of beer. Organic farming has been growing in the Czech Republic since the 1990s and is characterized mainly by the extensive breeding of cattle, goats and sheep in less favourable agricultural areas.

When are pesticides applied?

PPPs are applied several times throughout the year.

Which pesticides are relied on the most in the area?

On conventional farms, several PPPs are used, including:

Herbicides: Glyphosate, metazachlor, petoxamid, clopyralid, napropamide, clomazone

Fungicides: Tebuconazole, thriophanate-methyl, prochloraz, metconazole

Insecticides: Chlorpyrifos, thiacloprid, cypermethrin, deltamethrin

Sample numbers

Both conventional and organic systems contributed to the farming system. For example, ‘Cat Organic’ refers to a cat sampled from an organic farm.

Environment (total 96 samples )
Soil Conventional	11
Soil Organic	13
Crop Conventional	11
Crop Organic	10
Air outdoor Conventional	1
Air outdoor Organic	1
Indoor dust Conventional	7
Indoor dust Organic	7
Earthworm Conventional	11
Earthworm Organic	13
Water	8
Sediment	3

Human (total 267 samples)
Conventional farmer Male	28
Conventional farmer Female	27
Organic farmer Male	28
Organic farmer Female	20
Neighbour Male	32
Neighbour Female	36
Consumer Male	48
Consumer Female	48

Animal (total 136 samples)
Cow Conventional	26
Cow Organic	28
Sheep Conventional	14
Chicken Conventional	33
Chicken Organic	27
Cat Conventional	4
Cat Organic	4

Explanation of the figure

The ‘heatmap’ figures show the relative pesticide content in environmental, human or animal matrices. Select a tab from “Environment”, “Human” or “Animal” to explore the detailed content of each compartment. Name of the matrices are displayed in the lower light grey bars (X-axis), where the X-axis are labeled with different categories of sampling stratified by farm management types, human characteristics, animal types and/or sex, etc.

Color legend: the darker the purple squares are, the higher the pesticide concentration is. Light orange means ‘tested & not detected (<LOD)'
X-axis labels:
- Environment:
  - CF: Conventional farm.
  - OF: Organic farm.
- Human:
  - F_CF: Female (F) conventional (C) farmer (F).
  - M_CF: Male (M) conventional (C) farmer (F).
  - F_OF: Female (F) Organic (O) farmer (F).
  - M_OF: Male (M) Organic (O) farmer (F)
  - F_Neighbour: Female (F) neighbour.
  - M_Neighbour: Male (M) neighbour.
  - F_Consumer: Female (F) consumer.
  - M_ Consumer: Male (M) consumer.
- Animal:
  - CF: Conventional farm.
  - OF: Organic farm.

The different compounds are listed on the Y - axis, classified according to the pesticide type and EU approval status in 2021:

A-I: Approved insecticide
A-H: Approved herbicide
A-F: Approved fungicide
A_MT: Approved metabolite
NA-I: Not approved insecticide
NH: Not approved herbicide
NA-F: Not approved fungicide
NA_MT: Not approved metabolite
S: Synergist
UM: Urine metabolite

By clicking on the columns of different matrices or country names, for example: “Urine”, or “Denmark”. You will be directed to the country x matrix page where detailed statistics on three levels of information are revealed in this page:

Most frequently detected compounds in a matrix in a specific country with its median concentration.
Number of compounds tested and detected according to their approval status (Approved, Not approved, CfS (candidate for substitution) or synergist) in a matrix in a specific country.
Number and total concentration of pesticide detected in each sample in the matrix in the country.