Netherlands

Description

What type of agriculture is being studied in The Netherlands?

Potatoes

What are the main characteristics of the site?

The study site is located in the North of The Netherlands. The region has an average temperature of 8.5°C and mean annual precipitation of 796 mm. The area is important for agriculture, with more than 50% of the acreage in Groningen under arable farming. The main crops here are potato and cereal crops. Dairy farming also plays an important role, with around 20% of Dutch dairy farms located in the North. The Groningen province government is financially encouraging farmers to adopt more environment friendly farming practices. At Kollumerwaard, the farmers meet once per month and discuss the issues related to present and future of their production and farms.

When are pesticides applied?

April-September

Which pesticides are relied on the most in the area?

Herbicides: Carfentraozonethly, cyazofamid, cymoxanil, glyphosate, linuron, metamitron

Fungicides: Azoxystrobin, bixafen, cyazofamid, mancozeb, propamocarb, mandipropamid

Insecticides: Cyromazine, oxamyl

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 89 samples )
Soil Conventional	10
Soil Organic	10
Crop Conventional	10
Crop Organic	10
Air outdoor Conventional	1
Air outdoor Organic	1
Indoor dust Conventional	9
Indoor dust Organic	6
Earthworm Conventional	10
Earthworm Organic	10
Water	6
Sediment	5

Human (total 271 samples)
Conventional farmer Male	28
Conventional farmer Female	20
Organic farmer Male	24
Organic farmer Female	24
Neighbour Male	44
Neighbour Female	47
Consumer Male	53
Consumer Female	31

Animal (total 61 samples)
Sheep Conventional	8
Sheep Organic	8
Cow Conventional	17
Cow Organic	20
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.