NASS Highlights 2020 Agricultural Chemical Use Survey - Vegetables

NASS Highlights

•

July 2021

No. 2021-2

2020 AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL USE

AGRICULTURAL
Vegetable
Crops
CHEMICAL
USE
About the Survey

The 2020 Agricultural Chemical Use Survey of vegetable producers collected
data about pesticide use as well as pest management practices on acres
planted to 22 different vegetable crops. NASS conducted the survey among
producers in 18 states, focusing on the states that were major producers for
the surveyed crops. (Fig. 1)

AGRICULTURAL
CHEMICAL USE

The Agricultural Chemical
Use Program of USDA’s
National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS) is the federal
government’s official source
of statistics about on-farm
and post-harvest commercial
fertilizer and pesticide use and
pest management practices.
NASS conducts agricultural
chemical use surveys as part
of the Agricultural Resource
Management Survey. NASS
conducted the vegetable
chemical use survey in fall 2020.

Data are for the 2020 crop year, the one-year period beginning after the 2019
harvest and ending with the 2020 harvest. Data are available online for all
22 vegetables (see sidebar for how to access). This document highlights the
three vegetables sampled in the most states: onions, pumpkins, and snap
beans.
Fig. 1. States in the 2020 Vegetable Chemical Use Survey
(number of crops surveyed in state)
5

Access the Data
Access 2020 and earlier
vegetable chemical use data
through the Quick Stats
database (http://quickstats.nass.
usda.gov).
• In Program, select “Survey”
• In Sector, select “Environmental”
• In Group, select “Vegetables”
• In Commodity, select the
vegetable(s) for which you
want data
• Select your category, data item,
geographic level, and year
For pre-defined Quick Stats
queries that take you to data
for a particular vegetable, go to
http://bit.ly/AgChem and click
“Data Tables” under the 2020
Vegetables heading. For survey
methodology information, click
“Methodology.”

2

5

6
2

21

6

5
2

2

2

2

5

4
8

1

5
8

Who Uses Agricultural Chemical Use Data?
Producers, consumers, suppliers, policymakers, USDA and other federal and state agencies rely on chemical use and
other pest management data to make decisions about health, environment, safety, and trade issues. Some examples
of how the data are used:
• To evaluate the quality and safety of U.S. food products, providing assurances to both domestic and
international customers.
• To identify industry trends and determine the impact of on-farm chemical use and pest management.
• To assess the quality of streams, rivers, and groundwater; the impact of human activities; the benefits of
conservation practices; and the effectiveness of integrated pest management.
• To identify which chemicals farmers count on, making it more likely regulators will re-register the product.

United States Department of Agriculture
National Agricultural Statistics Service

www.nass.usda.gov

Pesticide Use

Table 1. Top Pesticides Applied to Selected Vegetables,
2020 Crop Year (percent of planted acres)

The pesticide active ingredients used on vegetables are
classified as herbicides (targeting weeds), insecticides
(targeting insects), fungicides (targeting fungal disease), and
other chemicals (targeting all other pests and other materials,
including extraneous crop foliage).
Onion growers applied herbicides to slightly more acres (91%
of planted acres) than fungicides or insecticides (90% and
73% of planted acres, respectively). Pumpkin growers applied
herbicides and fungicides to 79% and 75% of planted acres,
respectively. Snap bean growers applied herbicides to 94% of
planted acres but insecticides and fungicides to fewer acres.
(Fig. 2). Further detail on the top pesticides can be found in
Table 1.

Fig. 2. Pesticides Applied to Selected Vegetables, 2020 Crop Year
(percent of planted acres)
91

73

Onions

90

33
79

54

Pumpkins

75

6
Snap Beans

55

0
Herbicide

Insecticide

64

Fungicide

94

Active
Ingredient

The survey asked growers to report on the practices they
used to manage pests, including weeds, insects, and diseases.
Vegetable growers reported practices in four categories of
pest management strategy, widely referred to as PAMS –
prevention, avoidance, monitoring, and suppression. Table 2
shows the top practice in each category.
•  Prevention practices involve actions to keep a pest
population from infesting a crop or field.
•  Avoidance practices use cultural measures to mitigate or
eliminate the detrimental effects of pests.
•  Monitoring practices involve observing or detecting pests
through systematic sampling, counting, or other forms of
scouting.
•  Suppression practices involve controlling or reducing existing
pest populations to mitigate crop damage.

Average
Rate
(lbs/acre)

Total
Applied
(lbs)

83
75

0.341
1.526

33,000
112,500

52
38

0.460
1.088

13,500
25,900

39
38
Insecticides

0.561
1.165

38,600
83,500

44
35
35

0.023
1.327
0.095

1,200
50,100
3,600

20
12

0.152
0.252

1,900
1,800

37
30
Fungicides

0.039
0.075

2,600
3,400

60
44
44

3.969
2.554
0.474

223,200
120,200
23,000

58
24

4.184
1.041

121,000
13,500

39
24

1.136
1.170

80,800
48,700

Herbicides
Onions
Oxyfluorfen
Pendimethalin
Pumpkins
Clomazone
S- Metolachlor
Snap Beans
Bentazon
S- Metolachlor
Onions
Abamectin
Methomyl
Spinetoram
Pumpkins
Bifenthrin
Acetamiprid
Snap Beans
Lambda-cyhalothrin
Bifenthrin

Other Chemicals

Pest Management Practices

% of
Acres with
Ingredient
Applied

Onions
Mancozeb
Chlorothalonil
Mefenoxam
Pumpkins
Chlorothalonil
Copper hydroxide
Snap Beans
Thiophanate-methyl
Chlorothalonil

Table 2. Top Practice in Pest Management Category, 2020 Crop Year
(percent of planted acres, 22 vegetables)
Prevention: Plowed down crop residue
Avoidance: Rotated crops during the past three years
Monitoring: Scouted for insects and mites
Monitoring: Scouted for diseases
Suppression: Used pesticides with different mechanisms of
action to keep pests from becoming resistant to pesticides

76
90
95
94
58

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