Between the approved and the actual dose. A diagnosis of pesticide overdosing in French vineyards

In this article, we explore the factors leading winegrowers to apply pesticide doses exceeding the official recommendations. Our approach is founded on an original methodology that determines practices of overdosing by matching four databases in 2006: the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN); the cropping practices survey (PK) in the winegrowing sector; the e-phy database operated by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which identifies authorised doses per input; and climatic data measured by the Météo France meteorological office. Our sample, which contains 105 vineyards throughout France, reveals that 50% of these winegrowers never overdose, while 24% systematically apply excessive doses of pesticides. The latter group benefits from a comfortable financial situation, but suffers from an unfavourable climate.