Integrating a pesticide risk indicator into a multi-criteria assessment tool for comparing crop protection scenarios

Abstract

CONTEXT Chemical pesticides remain central to agricultural productivity but pose well documented risks to human health and ecosystems. While Integrated Pest Management (IPM) offers a more sustainable alternative, its adoption remains limited, partly due to the complex trade-offs that are not easily quantified and compared. OBJECTIVE This study presents the IPM Self-Assessment Tool (ISAT), a web-based application designed to enable transparent comparison of crop protection scenarios at the field level, integrating environmental, human health, agronomic, and economic indicators. METHODS A new harmonized pesticide risk indicator for Europe (PL EU – Pesticide Load Indicator for Europe) was developed. The PL EU covers 41 hazard metrics across three sub-indicators (Environmental Fate, Ecotoxicity, and Human Health). The PL EU was integrated into the ISAT alongside indicators for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and production costs, calculated using life cycle based methods. The tool was developed using data from ten European countries covering eight crops, with scenarios described by regional specialists and validated by farm advisors. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The PL EU was calculated for 502 active ingredients (441 synthetic, 61 biopesticides) across eight pesticide groups. A case study on winter wheat in Germany showed that, relative to conventional practice, an IPM scenario replacing herbicide use by mechanical weeding reduced pesticide risk by up to 75%, but at the cost of GHG emissions comparable to the conventional scenario. The ISAT enables users to identify risk-driving active ingredients and explore lower-risk alternatives, supporting informed decision-making for IPM adoption. SIGNIFICANCE To our knowledge, ISAT is the first freely accessible, web-based tool integrating a harmonized pesticide risk indicator with GHG emissions and economic outcomes within a single, comprehensive field level scenario comparison. It provides a transparent decision-support platform that can help farmers, advisors, and researchers make informed decisions when designing and comparing crop protection strategies across diverse European cropping systems.