All Ontario field crop, vegetable, fruit and specialty crop farmers are being asked to fill out a confidential, anonymous on-line survey of pesticide use for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Ministry of Rural Affairs. This year, the survey is being conducted by Farm & Food Care Ontario and is available on line at www.ontariopesticidesurvey.ca.
Surveys have been conducted every five years since 1973 and are used to track trends in pesticide use.Government, commodity boards and researchers use the information to help improve minor use pesticide registration lists, work toward safer use of pesticides and to understand trends in use and the types of pesticides used.
Craig Hunter, Expert Advisor with the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association, said “Ontario growers have shown leadership over the past 40 years by sharing their pesticide use records. These records have been put to great use to help justify such things as emergency uses, adding products to the GROU list for importation, and for pesticide pricing impacts.” Hunter added, “I urge growers to once again share their data, in total confidentiality, to continue this valuable resource.”
The survey will track field and horticulture crops and the pesticides used, acres applied and also acres where no pesticides are used. All farmers and custom spray applicators are encouraged to fill out the survey of products they used during the 2013 growing season.
Only a respondent’s county information will be collected to help determine pesticide usage in different parts of the province.
Data collection will continue until February 15, 2014.
