Environmental impact assessment of pesticide use within the framework of Life Cycle Assessment

The methods of ecological balancing up to its recent state of art are developed mainly from the analysis of industrial products. When they are applied to agricultural subjects it is attempted to analyse as broad as possible the fluxes of matter caused by agricultural activities within the framework of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The fluxes of matter and energy of machine employment and of the provision of means of production (seeds, fertiliser, pesticides) have to be investigated in order to reflect on cropping measures. The results of the expenditures for the production of pesticides both show lacks and emissions within the spectrum of active substances being offered. Different publications and own studies are investigated with regard to this state of affairs. On the basis of site specific crop rotations (loess area in Lower Saxony and a site in the basin of Uelzen), the shares of pesticide expenditure in the life cycle inventory of different crops are calculated and assessed for material and energy inputs and for the environmental effects. Finally, methodical approaches for the impact assessment of pesticide applications are discussed in view of the pest management and the environmental fate of pesticides.