AGRICULTURAL SOILS: A SIDEWAYS LOOK - The Soil - page 190

tonnes active ingredient treated ha

insecticides, acaricides, molluscicides 1,394 2,311,872

seed treatments 300 3,883,356

fungicides 4,341 6,715,230

herbicides 26,360 12,402,256

growth regulators, sterilants etc 3,138 801,197

TOTALS 35,536 26,114,203

T ABLE 11
Pesticide usage on major crops UK 1986/87 (From BAA Annual Report 1988).
Some crops are treated several times a year, eg fungicides on cereals and potatoes.

treated areas (thousands ha)

sugar
-beet

cereals potatoes peas oilseed rape

insecticides 875 94 139 153 321

fungicides 9002 613 - - 466

herbicides 7858 182 913 263 723

growth regulators 2120 - - - -

TOTAL AREA GROWN 3922 148 201 158 421

Carbaryl and phorate are poisonous to worms but, surprisingly, the real danger
to worms has been from fungicides. Formerly, copper-based sprays, such as Bordeaux
mixture, nearly eliminated worms from some orchards, and prevented normal incor-
poration of leaf litter into the soil as described in chapter 5 . The present danger is
from the large-scale use of benomyl, carbendazim or thiophanate-methyl on cereals.
Since 1985, over half the winter wheat and winter barley crops in Britain have been
sprayed with these compounds. They are highly toxic to worms whether absorbed dir-
ectly from soil or from decaying straw some months later.
New pesticides are continually being developed and there is a need therefore to
monitor their effects. A growing number of people, albeit still a minority, buy food
grown without using pesticides. This is an option in the western world where food