Perspectives d'évolution de l'emploi des engrais et des phytosanitaires dans l'agriculture française

Résumé En Fr

The authors analyze evolution of fertilizer and pesticides use in French agriculture and the outlook for the next years, considering technical, économie and agricultural policy changes. One of the aims is to study the possibility ofreducing agricultural pollution. Three points are studied. Thefirst is the évolution offarmers' purchases of fertilizer and pesticides during the last décades and their current practice. For fertilizer the rapid increase in consumption of the fifties and the sixties has given way, since the first oil shock, to a slower increase for nitrogen fertilizer, to a stagnation for potash fertilizer and to a fall for phosphate fertilizer. On the other hand pesticides consumption greatly increased over thepast three décades, but decreased since 1990. The évolution of the économie importance of fertilizer and pesticides in agriculture is also studied. Finally farmer' s practices andreasoning in matters of fertilization and plant protection are analyzed on the basis of a Spring 1991 survey of 867 French farmers. Secondly the authors analyze possibilities of reducing fertilizer and pesticides consumption by technical and économie means and try to assess their practicability. There is a relatively wide range of technical means : for fertilization, low input crops, green manure use, better adjustment of dosage, etc ; for plant protection, biological and integrated pest control, better risk assessment and risk forecasting, résistant crop varieties, etc. It is remarked that agricultural technology is evolving towards increasingly accurate matching of input application to crop needs, which should reduce waste and leaching into ground mater. The range of économie solutions is also relatively wide : subsidies for extensification, taxes on fertilizers, nitrogen quotas, etc. The survey on a sample group offarmers and several simulations on farms in the Paris Basin are used to study their impact. The level of extensification subsidies necessary to compensate for the différence in économie results between the most intensive and less intensive farmers is calculated. The authors also analyze farmers' opinions on an increase in nitrogen priées, on the institution of a nitrogen quota and on a "nitrate pollution" fax. Thirdly the authors study the foreseeable effects of a change in agricultural policy as defined in Mac Sharry's proposai ofjuly 1991 : set aside of farmland and a decrease in agricultural priées offset by direct aid to farmers. To evaluate the effect of this reform, the cases of intensive and extensive farms are distinguished. The compulsory set aside for médium and large farms as a condition for aid and the adaptation of agricultural practices to much lower agricultural priées, should lead to an adaptation of farming Systems. A decrease in fertilizer and pesticides consumption, a limitation of the intensification process as well as a certain trend towards extensification seem plausible.

On analyse l'évolution de l'emploi des engrais et des phytosanitaires dans l'agriculture française et ses perspectives pour les prochaines années, compte tenu des changements techniques, économiques et de politique agricole. Dans un premier temps on étudie l'évolution des achats des agriculteurs en engrais et pesticides depuis 20 ans et leurs pratiques actuelles en matière de fertilisation et de protection des cultures. Puis on examine les possibilités de réduction des consommations sous l'effet de l'évolution technique de l'agriculture et de diverses mesures économiques (primes à Intensification, taxation des engrais, quotas d'azote). Dans un troisième temps, on étudie les effets prévisibles des changements de politique agricole, gel de terres, baisse des prix et nouvelle politique communautaire définie dans le projet Mac Sharry de juillet 1991. En définitive, une réduction des consommations semble plausible dans les années à venir, ainsi qu'une plus grande rationalisation de leur emploi.