Pesticides and Environmental Chemicals

The German Agency for Technical Co-operation has made an initial attempt to trace and assess the various stages in the life of a pesticide a given developing country, in the form of an ecological information system. As the name implies, it will ultimately serve to describe and assess the fate and effect of a pesticide from the cradle to the grave (degradation and waste treatment). A summary of key terms in the field of pesticides can be found in WARE (1986); they are divided into categories based on the target organism and mode of action. Roughly 700 active ingredients in pesticides are currently registered for distribution and use on the world market. Prices in Germany, for example, are high, but the overall amount is relatively low here because many modern pesticides are used with low application quantities.