Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
E1: Agriculture and fisheries
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
European Commission, Eurostat L-2920, LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
1 October 2020
2.2. Metadata last posted
15 March 2021
2.3. Metadata last update
31 July 2024
3.1. Data description
The data set comprises the quantity of each active substance contained in plant protection products used on a selected crop on an aggregated level from 2010 onwards.
The data collection takes place every five years and the first reference year was 2010.
According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, the data collection is mandatory for all Member States of the European Union, Norway and Iceland, and optional for other EFTA countries as well as for candidate and potential candidate countries.
The regulation stipulates that countries should collect data at least for one year out of the five-year period. Accordingly, some countries send data for one year only, others for more than one year, others for all five years, and some send even data on different crops in different years, because they have e.g. a vegetable survey in one year and a cereals survey in another year.
The active substances are listed in Annex III of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017. The quantity of active substances is expressed in kilograms. Eurostat disseminates the active substances on the three aggregation levels available in the harmonised classification of substances, called major groups (first level), categories of products (second level) and chemical classes (third level).
The major groups are divided in the following categories:
F – Fungicides and bactericides;
H – Herbicides, haulm destructors and moss killers;
I – Insecticides and acaricides;
M – Molluscicides;
PGR – Plant growth regulators; and
ZR – Other plant protection products.
The full code list of active substances and their aggregation levels is annexed at the end of this report (Annex name: 'List of active substances').
The disseminated data excludes micro-biological substances because of the difficulties to convert units used to express them (such as colony-forming unit (CFU)) into kilogram (kg), the reporting unit used for dissemination.
The area treated with each substance is expressed in hectares. For the data between 2010-2014, the area treated cannot be disseminated, because the values are likely to contain double counting. That means if individual active substances of the same aggregation are applied on the same physical area, the area treated should not be added up not to double the area in the statistics reported. Only for Cyprus, the area treated could be published for 2011-2014, because they sent revisions in 2021 and can guarantee to have double counting excluded. For the five-year period 2015-2019, only the countries that ensured to have double-counting excluded were providing the information, and for these countries the hectare values were published.
The selection of crops also differs widely between countries. The regulation stipulates that the crops selected by a country shall be representative of the crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used. This led e.g. to a variety of 174 crop codes used in total by all reporting countries for the first 5-year period 2010-2014, and 167 crop codes used in the second 5 years period 2015-2019.
Considering all these different variables (164 aggregation levels of active substances, 5 reference years and about 200 crop codes free to choose), this results in a data set of more than 4 million possibilities for data combinations. The data set thus contains a lot of null values (a combination not available for a country).
3.2. Classification system
The classification of the active substances in plant protection products is annexed (Annex III) to Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/2010 of 17 November 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides.
The active substances are classified according to chemical and functional similarity. Aggregation levels in descending order comprise: major groups, categories of products, chemical classes and active substances. The list of substances is revised on a regular basis and at least every five years. The revisions are elaborated with the expert input of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). The code lists of active substances and their aggregation levels collected each year are annexed at the end of this report.
The geographical classification for country codes (ISO 3166) is applied.The classification system for crops derives from the Annual crop statistics Handbook 2023 . According to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, countries shall select crops which shall be representative of the crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used.
3.3. Coverage - sector
This data set covers the agricultural sector, in particular statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides on selected crops.
The selection of crops per country depends on the national relevance of the crops. According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, the crops selected shall be representative of the crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used. The selection of crops shall take into account the most relevant crops for the national action plans as referred to in Article 4 of Directive 2009/128/EC.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Concept
This data collection comprises pesticide use data as specified in Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009. Each Member State shall collect data on pesticide treatments on representative crops during a five-year period.
Variables:
For each selected crop the following variables shall be compiled:
The quantity of each active substance (as listed in Annex III of the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009) contained in the pesticides used on the selected crops, and
The area treated with each active substance.
Reporting measures:
Quantities of substances used shall be expressed in kilograms.
Areas treated shall be expressed in hectares.
Reference period:
The reference period shall, in principle, be a period of a maximum of 12 months covering all plant protection treatments associated directly or indirectly with the crop.
The reference period shall be reported as the year in which the harvest began.
Definitions
Plant protection products:
products consisting of or containing active substances, safeners or synergists, and intended for one of the following uses: protecting plants or plant products against all harmful organisms or preventing the action of such organisms, unless the main purpose of these products is considered to be for reasons of hygiene rather than for the protection of plants or plant products; influencing the life processes of plants, such as substances influencing their growth, other than as a nutrient or a plant biostimulant; preserving plant products, in so far as such substances or products are not subject to special Community provisions on preservatives; destroying undesired plants or parts of plants, except algae unless the products are applied on soil or water to protect plants; checking or preventing undesired growth of plants, except algae unless the products are applied on soil or water to protect plants.
Active substances:
substances, including micro-organisms having general or specific action against harmful organisms or on plants, parts of plants or plant products. Micro-biological substances are excluded in this data set. According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, active substances can be divided in three aggregation levels, listed hereafter in descending order: Major groups, categories of products and chemical classes.
Crop:
Agricultural plant product that can be cultivated and harvested. The crops follow the definitions contained in the Annual crop statistics Handbook 2023.
The crops selected by countries shall be representative of the crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used. The selection of crops shall take into account the most relevant crops for the national action plans as referred to in Article 4 of Directive 2009/128/EC.
Quantity:
Amount of kilograms of the active substances used on a certain crop. Values reported in other units than kilograms are not taken into account in this data set.
Area treated:
The physical area treated with plant protection products in hectares. It can be a whole crop parcel or only parts of a plot. The same physical area can also be treated several times, which can lead to double counting (see 3.1).
3.5. Statistical unit
Area (parcel/plot) on which one crop is cultivated and treated with at least one active substance and which can be identified by a unique ID
3.6. Statistical population
Total of agricultural units having at least one crop treated with at least one active substance.
3.7. Reference area
The entire territory of each country (NUTS 0) of the EU Member States, and Norway
3.8. Coverage - Time
5 years reference period, 2010-2014 for EU Member States, Norway and for the United Kingdom published;
5 years reference period 2015-2019 for EU Member States and Norway published;
2020-2024 ongoing data collection.
Reference year 2011 onwards for EU Member States (excluding Croatia), Norway and Switzerland; reference year 2013 onwards for Croatia; reference year 2015 onwards for Iceland; reference year 2017 onwards for Montenegro; reference year 2016 onwards for Turkey; and from reference years 2011 to 2019 for the United Kingdom.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable for pesticide use statistics, because it is not based on an index number of time series.
Active substances in kilograms (kg). Values reported in other units such as colony-forming unit (CFU) are excluded from this data set (for more information see 3.1 - Data description). The values are rounded to the nearest kg. A '0' flagged with 'n' for not significant therefore means that the value is <0.5 kg.
Area treated in hectares (ha). Values on the area treated are only indicated if country confirmed that several treatments on the same physical area are reported separately, so that double counting is avoided (for more information see 3.1 - Data description).
The period of each data collection covers five years, starting from the first five-year period 2010-2014. The countries are obliged to collect data at least for one reference year (12 months) out of five years and cover all plant protection treatments associated with the crop. The reference period shall be reported as the year in which the harvest began.
The frequency and selection of year(s) differ among the countries. For example, some countries collect data only in one year of the five-year period, others each year or every second or third year. Some collect even different crops in different years (e.g. apples in 2011 and potatoes in 2014). The annex 'Data availability - overview' at the end of this report provides an overview about the selected reference years of each country.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Commission Regulation (EU) No 656/2011 of 7 July 2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides, as regards definitions and list of active substances.
For specific details on national legal acts and/or other reporting agreements please check the attached national quality reports (available for each country at the upper right corner).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Article 3.4 of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council stipulates that 'for reasons of confidentiality, the Commission (Eurostat) shall aggregate the data before publication in accordance with the chemical classes or categories of products indicated in Annex III, taking due account of the protection of confidential data at the level of individual Member State. The confidential data shall be used by national authorities and by the Commission (Eurostat) exclusively for statistical purposes, in accordance with Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009' .
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Eurostat cannot disclose data on individual active substances. In addition, the aggregated data cannot always be disseminated if there is a direct or indirect (secondary confidentiality) risk of statistical units being identified. Confidential data is flagged 'c' in Eurostat's dissemination database (Eurobase).
8.1. Release calendar
Data were published for the first time in 2020 for the five-year period 2010-2014.
Data are published as soon as they are processed and validated by Eurostat. Target date is March t+2 of the reference period, where t is defined as the last year of the reference period.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data are disseminated simultaneously to all interested parties through Eurostat's database under the data set name aei_pestuse.
Every five years in the year t+2.
't' is defined as the last year of the five-year period. For example, 2024 is the last year of the five-year period 2020-2024. In the following year, 2025, data are sent from the Member States to Eurostat, so that the dissemination can take place by March 2026.
Statistics on aggregation levels of pesticides (major groups, categories of products and chemical classes) are disseminated in Eurostat's database 'Eurobase' under the data set name aei_pestuse.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
No micro-data is disseminated.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
A research paper (accessible here) was published in 2019 about the 'Statistics on agricultural use of pesticides in the European Union'. The purpose of the paper was to provide some insights in the data collected and to present a selection of results on the pesticide level of major groups after the experiences of the first data collection 2010-2014.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The methodology of each country is described in the national quality reports attached to this report (see upper right corner).
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council stipulates that 'for the purpose of this Regulation, the quality criteria as laid down in Article 12 (1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 shall apply. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with reports on the quality of the data transmitted as referred to in Annex II. The Commission (Eurostat) shall assess the quality of data transmitted' (Article 4 (1)(2)).
Reports on the quality of the data (called national quality reports) exist for each country and are attached to this quality report (see upper right corner).
11.1. Quality assurance
Validation of data file
The prime responsibility for ensuring the data completeness and accuracy rests with the National Statistical Authorities. Countries have the possibility to validate their data file in the single entry point 'EDAMIS' before they send it to Eurostat to check if the format is correct. In addition, when they transmit the file to Eurostat, an automatic validation tool 'Struval' is integrated in EDAMIS to check several parameters about the format of the data file (for more information see 18.4 - Data validation). If the system finds errors during the validation step, the file is sent back to countries for revision. After the file passed through, it is validated also manually.
Validation of quality report
The prime responsibility for ensuring the completeness and accuracy of the quality report rests with the National Statistical Institutes. The validation of the national quality reports by Eurostat takes place manually. If items are not answered satisfactory or even wrong, countries are asked to revise and resend the quality report.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council stipulates that 'for the purpose of this Regulation, the quality criteria as laid down in Article 12 (1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 shall apply. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with reports on the quality of the data transmitted as referred to in Annex II. The Commission (Eurostat) shall assess the quality of data transmitted' (Article 4 (1)(2)).
Quality assessment of national quality reports
The national quality report template is developed by Eurostat in a detailed way with clear guidelines to guarantee a consistent and complete picture of the national metadata.
Quality assessment of data
The data collection is facing the following methodological constraints:
Conversion of colony-forming unit (CFU) or other units used to express micro-organisms:
The overall assessment of the data quality is ‘good’. However, the data collection is facing methodological constraints related to the conversion of colony-forming unit (CFU) or other units used to express micro-organisms. Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 requires to report active substances in kilograms. As some biological fungicides and insecticides occur in various forms and concentrations, countries faced the difficulty to convert these other measuring units, for example colony-forming units (CFU), into kilograms. Due to the complexity of calculating quantities of micro-organisms in kilograms, there is currently no approved methodology for this conversion and no ensured comparability. Therefore, Eurostat decided to not disseminate micro-biological substances (F06 and I05 codes) so far.
Research is ongoing at Eurostat level with the aim to provide methodological support and to find a common approach for converting micro-biological substances into kilograms. First results can be found here.
Double counting of area treated:
In the data collection, each active substance should be reported with the corresponding hectares treated. Please see 3.1.
Selection of crops:
As already described under 3.1 - Data description, countries are free to choose representative crops out of a list of about 200 crops. This led to a large variety of crops reported, which hampers an EU-wide comparability.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users are the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), researchers, students and general public.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No complete user satisfaction survey has been carried out. However, in a survey to the main users of pesticide statistics in the European Commission, the data users pointed out the need for a higher availability of more detailed data on active substance level, and on a more refined spatial level.
12.3. Completeness
Not applicable because there is no target on the number of data in this data collection. Member States are asked to collect data on representative crops without stipulating the number of crops.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The degree of accuracy is expected to be good. The following items 13.2 - Sampling error and 13.3 - Non-sampling error provide a short summary of considerations of countries about errors and how to overcome them. Detailed information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
13.2. Sampling error
Countries who used sample surveys, extrapolated the results to the population of farms. Therefore, an under- or overestimation of used doses or pesticides cannot be ruled out. To reduce the sampling error, it is important to have representative strata with high sample sizes. Some countries however reported that the sample sizes of some strata are underrepresented, e.g. regarding certain type of farms or crops, or rarely used active substances. This is a factor lowering the accuracy of the current data collection. An improvement in accuracy could only be achieved by an increase in sample size for the respective strata, which would be associated with higher costs and burdens for the countries.
13.3. Non-sampling error
According to the last quality reports received from the countries the most common non sampling errors occurring during the collection process are: coverage errors; measurement errors; non-response error; processing errors and model-assumption error. More information can be found in the Eurostat and National Quality Reports according to ESQRS (available at the upper right corner).
14.1. Timeliness
Countries are free to choose a reference period of 12 months during the five-year reporting period. The deadline for transmission of data is 12 months after the end of the five-year reference period. For data collection 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 the data dissemination was made in March of T+2.
For current data collection the data can be sent/validated and disseminated at any moment of the reference period.
14.2. Punctuality
Most countries are able to meet the transmission deadlines (31 December of the year t+1 for transmission of the data and of the national quality reports).
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The data are collected and published on country level (NUTS 0). A comparability of regions within countries is therefore not possible.
The comparability between countries is theoretically very good due to the same harmonised classifications used for pesticides and crops. In practice however, countries choose very different crops out of the list of about 200 crop codes as they were asked by the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 to select representative crops for their country. If a crop is chosen only by one or very few countries, there is no comparability possible for this specific crop.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability over time is not ensured due to the fact that the data collection covers a reference period of five years and countries are free to choose the year of data collection.
According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, countries are obliged to collect data at least for one reference year (maximum 12 months) out of five years and cover all plant protection treatments associated with the crop. As a result, the frequency and selection of year(s) differ among the countries. For example, some countries collect data only in one year of the five-year period, others each year or every second or third year. Some collect even different crops in different years (e.g. apples in 2011 and potatoes in 2014).
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Eurostat compiles and also disseminates data on pesticides sales. The figures are not expected to match, because pesticides are also used in other sectors (like for private use, forestry or for public green spaces), which are not covered in the agricultural use of pesticides. In addition, pesticide sales data reflect the sales of products which might not be used in the same year, whereas pesticide use data refer only to the actual use of pesticides in a year in a country. Pesticide use data can also arise from stocks of previous years and are therefore not covered in the pesticide sales data of the same year.
15.4. Coherence - internal
All countries used the same harmonised classifications of pesticides and crops. This ensures theoretically a good internal coherence of the data.
Costs arise on the one hand for respondents (farmers) who have to spend time to collect the data, on the other hand for administrative authorities or similar institutions who are responsible for the compilation, preparation and transmission of the data to Eurostat.
Specific information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
In pesticide use statistics, the data are transmitted as stipulated by Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, within 12 months of the end of the reference period.
Data revisions or updates of the quality reports can be sent at any time. After validation of the revised data, the information is uploaded into the database.
Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.
Data may be published even if the data set is not complete, and some data are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once they are transmitted and validated.
18.1. Source data
The source data varies according to countries. Data can be collected through administrative data sources, sample surveys, expert estimations or census. Specific information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Eurostat collects data from the countries every five years. The deadline of the data transmission to Eurostat is 31st December t+1, where t is defined as the last year of the five-year reference period.
18.3. Data collection
Countries shall transmit the statistical results including confidential data to Eurostat via a single entry point (called EDAMIS), as required by the implementing Commission Regulation (EU) No 408/2011 (Article 1).
The data collection varies according to countries. Specific information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
18.4. Data validation
Countries have the possibility to validate their data file in the single entry point 'EDAMIS' before they send it to Eurostat to check if the format is correct. In addition, when they transmit the file to Eurostat, the automatic validation tool 'Struval' is integrated in EDAMIS to check several parameters about the format of the data file like:
the completeness and correctness of the heading and cells,
the correct use of allowed codes (crops, pesticides, flags, etc.),
the correct use of thousand and decimal separator for the observation values, etc.
Additionally, Eurostat performs other validation checks within its internal database.
If the system finds errors during any of the validation steps, the file is sent back to the countries for revision.
Validation methods used by countries
As countries use very different methods of data collection, the validation methods vary widely according to countries. Specific information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
18.5. Data compilation
Data compilation by Eurostat
For dissemination purposes, micro-biological substances are excluded from fungicides and insecticides from the original data sent by countries. The computation is as follows:
F (Fungicides and bactericides) - F06 (Fungicides of micro-biological or botanical origin),
I (Insecticides and acaricides) - I05 (Insecticides of micro-biological or botanical origin).
For more information about the reason of excluding micro-biological substances see '11.2. - Quality management - assessment'.
Data compilation by countries
Data are aggregated by the countries according to the categories specified in Annex III of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009.
Specific information on other data compilation procedures can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
The data set comprises the quantity of each active substance contained in plant protection products used on a selected crop on an aggregated level from 2010 onwards.
The data collection takes place every five years and the first reference year was 2010.
According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, the data collection is mandatory for all Member States of the European Union, Norway and Iceland, and optional for other EFTA countries as well as for candidate and potential candidate countries.
The regulation stipulates that countries should collect data at least for one year out of the five-year period. Accordingly, some countries send data for one year only, others for more than one year, others for all five years, and some send even data on different crops in different years, because they have e.g. a vegetable survey in one year and a cereals survey in another year.
The active substances are listed in Annex III of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017. The quantity of active substances is expressed in kilograms. Eurostat disseminates the active substances on the three aggregation levels available in the harmonised classification of substances, called major groups (first level), categories of products (second level) and chemical classes (third level).
The major groups are divided in the following categories:
F – Fungicides and bactericides;
H – Herbicides, haulm destructors and moss killers;
I – Insecticides and acaricides;
M – Molluscicides;
PGR – Plant growth regulators; and
ZR – Other plant protection products.
The full code list of active substances and their aggregation levels is annexed at the end of this report (Annex name: 'List of active substances').
The disseminated data excludes micro-biological substances because of the difficulties to convert units used to express them (such as colony-forming unit (CFU)) into kilogram (kg), the reporting unit used for dissemination.
The area treated with each substance is expressed in hectares. For the data between 2010-2014, the area treated cannot be disseminated, because the values are likely to contain double counting. That means if individual active substances of the same aggregation are applied on the same physical area, the area treated should not be added up not to double the area in the statistics reported. Only for Cyprus, the area treated could be published for 2011-2014, because they sent revisions in 2021 and can guarantee to have double counting excluded. For the five-year period 2015-2019, only the countries that ensured to have double-counting excluded were providing the information, and for these countries the hectare values were published.
The selection of crops also differs widely between countries. The regulation stipulates that the crops selected by a country shall be representative of the crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used. This led e.g. to a variety of 174 crop codes used in total by all reporting countries for the first 5-year period 2010-2014, and 167 crop codes used in the second 5 years period 2015-2019.
Considering all these different variables (164 aggregation levels of active substances, 5 reference years and about 200 crop codes free to choose), this results in a data set of more than 4 million possibilities for data combinations. The data set thus contains a lot of null values (a combination not available for a country).
31 July 2024
Concept
This data collection comprises pesticide use data as specified in Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009. Each Member State shall collect data on pesticide treatments on representative crops during a five-year period.
Variables:
For each selected crop the following variables shall be compiled:
The quantity of each active substance (as listed in Annex III of the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009) contained in the pesticides used on the selected crops, and
The area treated with each active substance.
Reporting measures:
Quantities of substances used shall be expressed in kilograms.
Areas treated shall be expressed in hectares.
Reference period:
The reference period shall, in principle, be a period of a maximum of 12 months covering all plant protection treatments associated directly or indirectly with the crop.
The reference period shall be reported as the year in which the harvest began.
Definitions
Plant protection products:
products consisting of or containing active substances, safeners or synergists, and intended for one of the following uses: protecting plants or plant products against all harmful organisms or preventing the action of such organisms, unless the main purpose of these products is considered to be for reasons of hygiene rather than for the protection of plants or plant products; influencing the life processes of plants, such as substances influencing their growth, other than as a nutrient or a plant biostimulant; preserving plant products, in so far as such substances or products are not subject to special Community provisions on preservatives; destroying undesired plants or parts of plants, except algae unless the products are applied on soil or water to protect plants; checking or preventing undesired growth of plants, except algae unless the products are applied on soil or water to protect plants.
Active substances:
substances, including micro-organisms having general or specific action against harmful organisms or on plants, parts of plants or plant products. Micro-biological substances are excluded in this data set. According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, active substances can be divided in three aggregation levels, listed hereafter in descending order: Major groups, categories of products and chemical classes.
Crop:
Agricultural plant product that can be cultivated and harvested. The crops follow the definitions contained in the Annual crop statistics Handbook 2023.
The crops selected by countries shall be representative of the crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used. The selection of crops shall take into account the most relevant crops for the national action plans as referred to in Article 4 of Directive 2009/128/EC.
Quantity:
Amount of kilograms of the active substances used on a certain crop. Values reported in other units than kilograms are not taken into account in this data set.
Area treated:
The physical area treated with plant protection products in hectares. It can be a whole crop parcel or only parts of a plot. The same physical area can also be treated several times, which can lead to double counting (see 3.1).
Area (parcel/plot) on which one crop is cultivated and treated with at least one active substance and which can be identified by a unique ID
Total of agricultural units having at least one crop treated with at least one active substance.
The entire territory of each country (NUTS 0) of the EU Member States, and Norway
The period of each data collection covers five years, starting from the first five-year period 2010-2014. The countries are obliged to collect data at least for one reference year (12 months) out of five years and cover all plant protection treatments associated with the crop. The reference period shall be reported as the year in which the harvest began.
The frequency and selection of year(s) differ among the countries. For example, some countries collect data only in one year of the five-year period, others each year or every second or third year. Some collect even different crops in different years (e.g. apples in 2011 and potatoes in 2014). The annex 'Data availability - overview' at the end of this report provides an overview about the selected reference years of each country.
The degree of accuracy is expected to be good. The following items 13.2 - Sampling error and 13.3 - Non-sampling error provide a short summary of considerations of countries about errors and how to overcome them. Detailed information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
Active substances in kilograms (kg). Values reported in other units such as colony-forming unit (CFU) are excluded from this data set (for more information see 3.1 - Data description). The values are rounded to the nearest kg. A '0' flagged with 'n' for not significant therefore means that the value is <0.5 kg.
Area treated in hectares (ha). Values on the area treated are only indicated if country confirmed that several treatments on the same physical area are reported separately, so that double counting is avoided (for more information see 3.1 - Data description).
Data compilation by Eurostat
For dissemination purposes, micro-biological substances are excluded from fungicides and insecticides from the original data sent by countries. The computation is as follows:
F (Fungicides and bactericides) - F06 (Fungicides of micro-biological or botanical origin),
I (Insecticides and acaricides) - I05 (Insecticides of micro-biological or botanical origin).
For more information about the reason of excluding micro-biological substances see '11.2. - Quality management - assessment'.
Data compilation by countries
Data are aggregated by the countries according to the categories specified in Annex III of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009.
Specific information on other data compilation procedures can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
The source data varies according to countries. Data can be collected through administrative data sources, sample surveys, expert estimations or census. Specific information can be found in the attached national quality reports (see upper right corner).
Every five years in the year t+2.
't' is defined as the last year of the five-year period. For example, 2024 is the last year of the five-year period 2020-2024. In the following year, 2025, data are sent from the Member States to Eurostat, so that the dissemination can take place by March 2026.
Countries are free to choose a reference period of 12 months during the five-year reporting period. The deadline for transmission of data is 12 months after the end of the five-year reference period. For data collection 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 the data dissemination was made in March of T+2.
For current data collection the data can be sent/validated and disseminated at any moment of the reference period.
The data are collected and published on country level (NUTS 0). A comparability of regions within countries is therefore not possible.
The comparability between countries is theoretically very good due to the same harmonised classifications used for pesticides and crops. In practice however, countries choose very different crops out of the list of about 200 crop codes as they were asked by the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 to select representative crops for their country. If a crop is chosen only by one or very few countries, there is no comparability possible for this specific crop.
Comparability over time is not ensured due to the fact that the data collection covers a reference period of five years and countries are free to choose the year of data collection.
According to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, countries are obliged to collect data at least for one reference year (maximum 12 months) out of five years and cover all plant protection treatments associated with the crop. As a result, the frequency and selection of year(s) differ among the countries. For example, some countries collect data only in one year of the five-year period, others each year or every second or third year. Some collect even different crops in different years (e.g. apples in 2011 and potatoes in 2014).
