Does pesticide use in agriculture present a risk to the terrestrial biota?

Abstract

Inadequate pesticide application practices have many implications on human and environmental health. This research aimed at assessing pesticide risks on bees, non-target arthropods (NTAs) and earthworms, using PRIMET (Pesticide Risks in the Tropics to Man, Environment and Trade), a pesticide risk model, in the western highlands agro-ecological zone of Cameroon. For this purpose, information on pesticide usage stratagem (dosage, application interval and number of applications) and ecotoxicological properties (median lethal doses, persistence and no observable effect concentration) were gathered and entered into PRIMET to acquire the Predicted Exposure Concentration (PEC), No Effect Concentration (NEC) and Exposure Toxicity Ratio, ETR = PEC / NEC). The risk assessment revealed that the riskiest pesticides for earthworms were acetamiprid, glyphosate and imidacloprid with ETR values of 2963, 1667 and 419 respectively. For bees, acetamiprid, cypermethrin, emamectin benzoate, imidacloprid, and lambda-cyhalothrin were highly risky, with respective ETR values of 3252, 487, 278, 1383 and 295. The model predicted NTAs to be predominantly defenceless against cypermethrin and imidacloprid, as these compounds exhibited the topmost values of ETR of, 4.3 × 108 and 4.4 × 107, respectively. Other pesticides that were modelled to be highly risky to NTAs comprised chlorothalonil (ETR = 2076), cymoxanil (ETR = 1133), emamectin benzoate (ETR = 1700), lambda-cyhalothrin (ETR = 4900) and metalaxyl (ETR = 2303). Some compounds gave evidence of multi-level risks: imidacloprid exhibited high risk to all the organisms (earthworms, bees and NTAs); acetamiprid was risky to earthworms and bees, while cypermethrin, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin, were modelled to pose a risk to bees and NTAs. Regulating the use of these perilous pesticides should be encouraged in agroecosystems to protect environmental and human health.