To what extent can a phase-out of pesticides in viticulture be achieved? Learning from the efforts of a large farm network after 10 years

Abstract

In accordance with European Directive 2009/128/CE, France has set up national policies to curb the reliance of agriculture on phytosanitary inputs. The DEPHY network is one such initiative;, which has been designed to drive, support and document the fieldwork of 3,000 farms voluntarily taking part in a collective input reduction programme. This study aimed to describe the achievements of the network’s viticultural sector, as its perennial crop is heavily reliant on pesticide applications. We chose a sample of 343 wine-growing systems across mainland France, analysed records of their vineyard operations from before they joined the network, and compared them to those from the 2017-2020 period. We used the Treatment Frequency Index (TFI) to assess pesticide reliance together with other techno-economical parameters: production costs, workloads, greenhouse gas emissions and disease control. A significant decrease in pesticide use was found over the whole study period, with, for instance, an average TFI reduction of 24 %, which is consistent with national objectives but unmatched outside of the network. We observed an overall shift towards pesticide inputs with lower repercussions on health or the environment, as well as different TFI reduction trajectories based on initial pesticide dependency. We described the alternative practices introduced to the systems, and our results suggest that reductions in pesticide use stem from quite small and minor changes made to the cropping systems. These new practices only slightly lowered the vineyards’ technical and economical performances in specific situations involving an indepth revamping of the systems; e.g., conversion to organic viticulture. To increase pesticide phase-out, further research is needed on redesigning cropping systems, and on how to scale up the network’s results to the national level.