France Pesticide Use Hits Five-Year High in 2024 per Independent Calculation

Générations futures calculated that pesticide use in France reached its highest level in five years during 2024. The environmental group used official sales data and the established NODU methodology to arrive at the figure, which showed an increase of about 6 percent from 2023. The NODU has climbed more than 10 percent since 2019, according to the same calculation released on June 25.

Glyphosate tonnage rose from 6,752 metric tons in 2023 to 8,268 metric tons in 2024 and has stayed within that range since 2019. The French Ministry of Agriculture introduced the European HRI-1 index as its reference system in February 2024. Ministry data show the NODU rose nearly 8 percent from the late 2000s through 2023, while the new index recorded a nearly 50 percent decline over the same span.

The Ecophyto plan launched in 2009 set a target of cutting NODU by 50 percent within ten years. Successive versions of the plan through 2030 never achieved that reduction. Générations futures also tracked narrower categories.

The NODU for substances classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic fell about 5.5 percent in 2024 from 2023 but stayed above the 2019 level. Use of pesticides labeled endocrine disruptors remained nearly stable between 2023 and 2024 while showing a longer-term decline since 2019.