Financial importance of pesticides

Other pesticides. (Note that world sales figures are in US). UK production probably accounts for about 7% of world sales the volatility of exchange rates makes a precise judgement difficult. 

Turning to the worldwide situation, herbicides are again the single most important group of pesticides. However the sales value of insecticides is not far behind and reflects the severe problems which insects cause in climates warmer than our own temperate one. Not only is there interference with growing crops (e.g. by locusts) but in tropical countries insects are responsible for the transmission of several virulent diseases. Malaria is perhaps the best known of these, and programmes for its eradication have represented a major outlet for insecticides. 

1 Geographical usage of pesticides. If total worldwide pesticide usage is broken down geographically the following figures are obtained for 1983  

All the crops listed are grown as food with the exception of cotton. The first two uses in the rank order clearly cover a variety of crops and so the great importance of maize and rice as foodstuffs is evident from the large-scale usage of pesticides—mainly herbicides plus some fungicides—which emphasizes the vast scale on which these crops are grown. 

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