1994-1995 Pesticide Market Estimates: Table Highlights

Table Highlights

• U.S. pesticide user purchases account for nearly one-third of the world market in dollar terms and about one-fifth of the active ingredient (Table 1).
• Annual U.S. pesticide user expenditures totaled approximately $11.3 billion in 1995 (Table 2). ($10.6 billion in 1994)
• Agriculture accounts for more than two-thirds of pesticide user expenditures and three-fourths of the quantity used annually (Table 2 & Table 3).
• Herbicides are the leading type of pesticides, in terms of both user expenditures and volumes used (Table 2 & Table 3).
• About 1.0 billion pounds of active ingredient of conventional pesticides are used annually in the U.S. (Table 4).
• Total U.S. pesticide usage in 1995 was about 4.5 billion pounds of active ingredient. This figure includes conventional pesticides (1.0 billion lbs.) plus industrial wood preservatives, biocides, and certain other chemicals used as pesticides (Table 4). This usage involves about 21,000 pesticide products and 875 active ingredients registered under the Federal Pesticide Law (Table 7).
• Farmers' expenditures on pesticides were equal to 4.6% of total farm production expenditures in 1995, up from 3.9% in 1993 (Table 5).
• Net usage of conventional pesticides of about 1.0 billion pounds derives from U.S. production of 1.3 billion, imports of 0.2 billion, and exports of 0.5 billion (pounds of active ingredient of conventional pesticides) (Table 6).
• The use of pesticides occurs on about three-fourths of the Nation's farms (1.4 million out of 1.9 million) and households (70 million out of 95 million) (Table 7).
• The most widely used pesticide in U.S. agricultural crop production by volume is the herbicide atrazine (Table 8). The herbicide 2,4-D has the largest volume of usage in the non-agricultural sectors (Table 9).
• In 1994, conventional pesticide usage in agriculture increased to 786 million pounds from 706 in 1993, or by about 11 percent, and declined about 2 percent in 1995 (Table 10). The significant increase in agricultural pesticide usage in 1994 was due to (1) acreage increases for several pesticide intensive crops and (2) exceptional pest control problems associated with major flooding and unseasonable weather in midwest and western states. For the non-agricultural sectors, conventional pesticide usage declined in both 1994 and 1995 (Table 10).
• There were 31 new active ingredients registered as pesticides under FIFRA in 1995 (30 in 1994) (Table 11a). Of these new active ingredients, more than one-half were "safer" pesticides (biological or other reduced risk) (Table 11b).
• There are about 1.34 million certified pesticide applicators in the U.S. (Table 12). Of these, most are for agricultural applications (about 960,000) and the remainder (384,000) are certified commercial applicators (Table 12).